A Ladybug Can't Change Her Spots
by lilac-kat
Summary: An embittered old Guardian. A surly black cat. A mysterious woman. And at the center, an emotionally conflicted boy and a sick girl losing faith in herself. Plus a dark secret that could rewrite history and destroy it all... (Adapted from a comic by SleepySundae on DeviantArt. I DO NOT OWN THIS STORY.) Canon-divergent AU where nothing from Episode 22 onward exists/happens.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N Hey guys! As I explained in the description, this is a novelization I am writing of the popular deviantArt comic _A Ladybug Can't Change Her Spots_ by SleepySundae. The comic artist gave me permission to write this adaptation for a few reasons: one, I was willing to put in the work for no monetary profit, and two, to help her explain parts of the story that she can't work into the comic itself (and has therefore tried to explain in the descriptions of her work, which unfortunately not everyone takes the time to read). SleepySundae is also the editor of this fanfic, so she knows exactly what's going into it. As you read this, I highly recommend you check out the original comic on deviantArt if you haven't already in order to read ahead in the story (currently in its 7th chapter) _and_ appreciate her fantastic art, which I am incapable of expressing fully with mere words. Enjoy!**

 **DISCLAIMER #1: I do not own, nor am I affiliated with, the TV show _Miraculous Ladybug._**

 **DISCLAIMER #2: I do not own the original story/dialogue featured in this fanfic, however the rest of the writing itself is pretty much my own.**

Chapter 1

"...there are many insects that possess unique features to help them survive. For example, the _coccinella septempunctata_ , better known as the common seven-spotted ladybug, wards off predators with its vibrant colors and black spots." As she spoke, Ms. Bustier pointed to various parts of the anatomical diagram of the red beetle on the classroom projector screen, finally resting her pointer on its legs. "Its blood is toxic and it can secrete a foul-smelling liquid from the leg joints. Ladybugs can also play dead when threatened..."

As the teacher's voice droned on, Marinette Dupain-Cheng's sleep-deprived ire grew. She'd been hoping she could surreptitiously catch a few winks after last night's patrol turned into an all-nighter, but with a school lecture like this, it was not meant to be. Clearly the rest of the class was ecstatic that the day's biology lesson concerned the animal inspiration for their beloved superheroine (not the least of whom was one lovestruck Adrien Agreste, whose derpy face was busy amusing Nino Lahiffe in the front row), but the superheroine herself could honestly care less. After all, when one's best friend runs the sensational Ladyblog, one tends to hear enough trivia, mythos, and superstition about ladybugs to last at least nine lifetimes.

Speaking of her best friend…

"Marinette..." Poke. "...Marinette..." Poke-poke-poke. "...Marinette, wake up."

Knowing what was coming, she rolled her eyes and shot a tired sidelong look at Alya Césaire, who up until now had been furiously scribbling notes instead of playing on her phone as usual. "Mm?"

"Isn't this awesome?" she whispered enthusiastically. "I can't believe we're learning about ladybugs in school! This is so totally going on my blog!"

Ms. Bustier's voice continued on. "...in fact, the precise coloring of a ladybug can indicate just how toxic it is..."

Marinette yawned and rubbed her eyes. "Not sure what actual ladybugs have to do with _the_ Ladybug," she muttered, for what probably wouldn't be the last time.

Alya wasn't listening. "And you know how sometimes Chat Noir acts like a real cat? Well, I've been theorizing about this for awhile—"

 _Oh boy, here it comes_ , Marinette thought, making a noise that was somewhere between a chuckle and a groan.

"—but what if Ladybug has some actual Ladybug traits, too?"

"I doubt it," she replied with another yawn. "Chat Noir only acts like that because he's a total dork."

Unbeknownst to her, Adrien's ears pricked up at that statement.

"...ladybugs hibernate in cold weather, gathering in large groups somewhere safe to protect themselves from..."

So did Alya's. "You seem awfully confident about that," she said silkily, a sly look on her face as she leaned in closer until their noses were nearly touching. "I'd almost think you know him _personally_."

Marinette's eyes widened in panic and she leaned back a little. _Uh-oh, did I say too much?_ "W-well," she stammered, "I, um, told you about the—y'know, the night when he—"

It was at that moment her friend's phone suddenly buzzed. Startled, Alya quickly slid back into her seat to check it, while Marinette breathed a sigh of relief. Even with her excuse about her civilian encounter with the feline superhero while Evillustrator was akumatized, that was still too close of a call. She resolved to be more careful with her words next time.

Meanwhile, Alya skimmed through the news notification on her phone with growing anticipation. "Ms. Bustier!" she stood up and announced to the class. "There's an akuma attack going on right now!"

In one synchronized movement, Marinette and Adrien looked up with a jolt.

Her lecture interrupted, the teacher blinked. "As long as it's not near the school, there's no need to—"

"But I'm SCARED."

She raised an eyebrow. "Alya, you do this every time there's an akuma. I know you're not— "

"AND I'M SURE MY MOM IS WORRIED ABOUT MY LITTLE SISTERS CUZ SHE'S AT WORK AND THERE'S NO ONE TO—"

"Alright, alright!" Ms. Bustier cut her off with a defeated sigh. "Class dismissed. But I want you all back after lunch!"

The class wasn't listening by that point, in the general hustle to gather their things and get out the door. Sweeping her notebook into her book bag, Marinette hopped out of her seat and took off at a discretely brisk walk out of the classroom, down the stairs and out to the streets, looking for a place to—

"Marinette! Come watch the fight with me!"

Slowing down, she turned to see Alya chasing after her, holding up her phone camera excitedly. As much as she hated disappointing her best friend, she had the perfect excuse and a matching fearful face lined up. "Alya," she began, continuing to back away, "you know I'm not brave enough for that stuff..."

"Aw c'mon, I'll protect you!"

Marinette had to laugh at the biceps Alya was doing her best to flex. "I know you would, but I'd really rather go home."

Shrugging, Alya took off in the opposite direction down the sidewalk. "Alright," she called over her shoulder, "but you're missing out!"

Still smiling, Marinette ducked into the closest alley and pressed her back to the wall so she wouldn't be seen, then set down her book bag and unclasped her little hip purse.

Out zoomed her dear little kwami. "That was convenient!" Tikki giggled in her tinkly voice.

"Sure was," Marinette agreed, thankful for her best friend's oblivious assistance. "I just wish I didn't have to act like a coward to her. It doesn't feel right."

Tikki nodded in understanding. "But it's an easy way to excuse yourself," she reminded her, beaming. "Ready when you are!"

Marinette grinned and flipped back her pigtail to expose her earrings. "Tikki, spots on!"

* * *

"Alya sure makes it easy to transform in the middle of school," Adrien chuckled as he shut the bathroom door and opened his jacket.

Out floated his own petulant kwami. "Ugh, I don't feel like dealing with an akuma today..."

Adrien wasn't fazed. "We can't take a day off! Ladybug is probably already waiting for us!"

Plagg, however, continued to whine. "But we just fought one yesterday!"

"I know! Isn't it great?" The boy's eyes sparkled with love and adoration. "I'll get to see Ladybug again so soon!"

"Uuhhhhnnggg..."

Adrien rolled his eyes and smiled. Normally he'd ignore Plagg and drag him into the brooch anyhow, but after the rare treat of a ladybug lecture, he was feeling soft today. "Okay, okay, how about this: if we finish quickly, then you'll have plenty of time to eat all the Camembert you want before lunch is over."

Instantly Plagg's grumpiness faded and he flashed a wide grin at Adrien. "Deal."

He returned the grin and thrust out his fist with the silver ring on it. "Plagg, claws out!"

* * *

From her position on a rooftop, Ladybug scanned the streets and Paris skyline for anything out of the ordinary.

 _I completely forgot to ask Alya where the akuma was sighted in my hurry to get out of there,_ she thought, mentally kicking herself as she stroked her chin. _I don't even know what to look_ _for_ _._

"It's a meow-nificent afternoon, isn't it?"

Ladybug turned at the voice to find a winking Chat Noir perched on a chimney behind her. "My Lady," he said with a flourish.

She narrowed her eyes, feeling a headache coming on. This was gonna be one of those days. "Hello, Chat Noir." Folding her arms, she got right down to business. "You wouldn't happen to know where the akuma is, would you?"

Unfortunately, the kitty was just as infuriatingly chipper as always, which was saying something considering how exhausted he ought to be after last night. "Dunno! Let's ask my paw-some nose!" he sang, pointing as he took a long sniff. "Let's see, I smell..."

Groaning, Ladybug clenched her fists to her temples, her headache worsening. _I may trust my partner with my life, but I don't have the energy to deal with all those puns two days in a row._

"...DOG."

Ladybug glanced over at her partner, eyebrow raised, just in time to see his feline grimace quickly morph into a mask of human cheer. "I mean, erm, I _like_ dogs!"

And that's when they heard the barking.

Suddenly they were everywhere, all sorts of dogs big and small, yapping and howling and chasing terrified people every which way through the streets. Scanning the commotion, Ladybug tried to discern where the akuma could possibly be. "Is the akuma a dog?" she wondered aloud. If so, that would be a first.

Then there was a heavy pounding noise like an anvil on a kettle drum, _and the largest dog she'd ever seen_ rounded the corner, wearing tattered pants over mangy yellowish-beige fur, a rabid hunger in its eyes and a snarl tearing through its fangs.

Ladybug and Chat Noir gaped. Heh, a dog? Scratch that, the akuma was a _beast_.

"I think our best shot is to corner him," she told her partner, indicating the dead-end alley where she'd transformed earlier. "Let's cause a commotion and lead him in there."

"Good idea! What kind of commotion?"

As it happened, they were spared coming up with a creative idea when three dogs chased a mom and her two sons down that very alley. "Quick, after them!" she ordered, already aiming her magic yo-yo at the lamppost below. Zipping through the air after it with Chat hot on her heels, she stuck two fingers in her mouth and whistled as loud as she could.

The growling dogs stopped in their tracks and turned their sights on her, perching on the lamppost. "You dogs are barking up the wrong tree!" she called down to them with a smirk.

On the ledge behind her, she heard her partner squeal. "That was a wonderful pun, My Lady! I'm so proud of you!"

Ladybug sighed.

The three dogs sprang at the lamppost, barking and snarling. With them distracted, Ladybug shifted her attention to the people still huddled in the alley. "Clear the area!" she hollered at them, and they complied. That done, she turned back around to find the gigantic dog on its hind legs directly in front of her.

" _I AM K-9,_ " the beast rumbled in a bass that made her entire body tremble. " _DOG IS MAN'S BEST FRIEND, BUT MAN IS NOT THE BEST FRIEND OF DOG! NOW DOGS ARE FREE TO MAKE THEIR OWN DECISIONS!_ "

All the dogs on the street began to howl, and it sounded like a stadium mob cheering him on. Dimly, Ladybug knew they were probably being mind-controlled and felt sorry for them, but the rest of her focus (at least, the part that wasn't devoted to trying in vain to keep her raging headache at bay) was on the leather collar around the akuma victim's scruffy neck. "The akuma must be in either its collar or its tag," she shouted to Chat over all the noise. "You're gonna have to draw the dogs away so I can get close enough to grab the collar!"

Clutching his felt ears, Chat groaned. "Why do I have to be on dog duty?"

Ignoring his grumbling, Ladybug swung herself off the lamppost and out of K-9's line of sight, waiting for her partner to make his move. She watched as he leapt to a canvas awning across the way and let out a screeching _MEOW!_

A hush fell over the dogs as they locked eyes with the source of the noise. Chat smirked at them and taunted, "What kind of dogs are you if you don't chase cats?"

Amused, Ladybug watched as the entire pack threw themselves at the kitty, who sprang away in fright and bolted down the street. "I don't think I like dogs anymore…!" she heard him wail, the dogs in hot pursuit.

As K-9 brought up the rear in chasing after her partner, Ladybug hastily threw her yo-yo at the beast and let it wrap around its snout in a sort of leashed muzzle. "Oh no, you don't!" she said, pulling it tight. "Time for you to go to the pound!"

K-9 froze and growled for a split second. Then jerked its head forward, hard.

Ladybug went flying. "WAAAAGH!" she screamed, losing her grip on the yo-yo as she tumbled to the ground. Its snout freed, the beast scampered around the corner into another nearby alley.

The superheroine brushed herself off and pulled herself up to her feet, flicking the yo-yo back into her palm with an annoyed snort. Rubbing her forehead to try and dispel the headache, she warily walked into the alley and looked around, but even when she came into a big open area between buildings, there was no flash of yellow-beige fur to be seen. _Huh,_ she wondered, puzzled. _How could I lose something that big?_

Something whined behind her. Still clutching her forehead, Ladybug turned to find a panting cocker spaniel sitting on its haunches at the other end of the open area, where another tiny side alley extended back into darkness. Suspicious of a trap, she cautiously approached the dog. "What, so you're not gonna bark at me?" she asked it, half-expecting a reply.

The dog merely whined again and wagged its tail.

Uncertain and unable to think straight anymore with her worsening headache, she reached out a hand.

The whine morphed into a low growl.

Then a chilling _ROAR_ behind her made her stop cold.

She whirled around just as K-9 threw itself off the top of a fire escape, jaws aimed straight for her neck.

 _Snap!_

* * *

Several blocks away, an entire pack of dogs still on his heels, Chat Noir heard the faint feminine shriek.

His Lady. That was His Lady.

On instinct he skidded to a halt and whipped out his magic staff, changing tactics from flight to fight. "Bark off!" he yelled angrily, swinging the staff and sending dogs flying every which way.

He didn't really remember most of the fight, actually, not with his mind elsewhere. Next thing he knew he was pole-vaulting back to where he'd left Ladybug, leaving a scattered pile of disoriented canines in his wake. Following his nose, Chat found himself dropping into a wide open area surrounded by buildings and hidden from street view, right behind the akumatized victim. "Ladybug!" he called. "Are you okay? What happened?"

The beast slowly turned to meet his gaze.

"Ladybu—" Chat began again, but the name died on his lips as he saw...

Oh.

Oh.

 _Oh._

With a bestial snort, K-9 relaxed his jaws' grip on Ladybug's neck, and her lifeless body fell to the ground with a soft _whumph._

Chat couldn't move.

His feline eyes locked on her face, the bangs obscuring her glassy irises, her pink lips barely parted.

Her chest wasn't moving. She wasn't breathing. She wasn't breathing she wasn't breathing she wasn't

b r e a

t h i

n g

!

Something in him _snapped._ Every hair on his head, every muscle in his body, every fiber in his black leather suit clenched in pure r-a-g-e at what this beast had done to _HIS LADY_.

And now that thing had the nerve to growl him. As if he could be frightened.

But K-9—no, not K-9, _Hawkmoth_ —had it all wrong. Because Chat Noir would

make

him

 _pay._

A pure, feral scream built in his throat and, with one final snap of his jagged tail, ripped its way out and tore through the air, releasing all his anguish with it.

"rrrrrrraaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

 _Clangggg!_

One mighty leap later and his staff was locked in a deathgrip in K-9's powerful jaws. But in his red-misted wrath, the cat was stronger than the dog and the butterfly. In a burst of strength he flung the beast into the air, then extended his staff and shoved the giant mutt into the far wall of the closest alley, letting it slam to the ground.

But that wasn't the end of it, oh no. Chat recompressed his staff and narrowed his eyes to slits of pure determination, channeling his roaring hot bloodlust into cold calculation, and as K-9 struggled back up to its feet he took his staff in both hands and began to spin it spinning spinning spinning until the beast was on its feet and charging toward him and so he let go of the staff letting it ricochet CLANG-CLANG KRONG BANGGG around the alley directly hitting each shatterpoint on the two fire escapes overhead but completely missing the beast and so it bared its teeth and flexed its claws and snarled and launched itself off its hind legs directly at the stoic superhero—

—which was precisely when the fire escapes gave way and with a KRAAAKKKK smote K-9 to the ground, pinning him flat.

The alley went quiet.

Dazed, the giant dog looked up at him and whimpered.

The metal staff came back whirling through the air like a boomerang, and mechanically Chat reached up and caught it.

He fixed his fierce green eyes on the helpless akuma victim a moment longer, as if boring into the very soul of Hawkmoth himself.

Then all the anguish and bloodlust that had coursed adrenaline through his veins left him, and with a growing sense of dread he turned on his heel and half trotted, half ran to the motionless side of His Lady.

"Ladybug?"

Chat stood over her and looked down into her face, at her still chest, hoping to find any, _any_ sign of life at all in her slender, strong body.

He bit his lip, eyes burning. "Bugaboo…?"

No answer.

But this was the part where she was supposed to tell him to "stop calling me Bugaboo!"

Why wasn't she?

 _I won't stop calling you Bugaboo until you tell me to,_ he tried to say. _I can't stop until you say so. You gotta talk to me, or I won't stop. I mean it, you gotta..._

Slowly, Chat Noir knelt down and tenderly picked her up by the shoulders, cradling her head to his chest. "Wake up," he murmured, his voice choked. "Pl-please."

Tears brimmed in his eyes, under the mask. Trying to blink them back, he leaned down and pressed his lips into her soft bluenette hair, still faintly scented with vanilla and cinnamon. Touching his forehead to hers, a small part of him wondered if she'd let him kiss her on the lips, even while dead.

He didn't notice the tear that ran down his mask to drip off his chin, landing on her left eyelid.

* * *

Drip. _Plop._

Ladybug blinked and winced.

"Ow, that got in my eye."

She heard someone's breath catch in his throat. "I'm sorry—"

Then the pain and overpowering lethargy hit her. "Uuuugghh… _why am I so groggy?_ " she complained to no one in particular in a slightly slurred speech, furiously rubbing her eyes as she tried to wake herself up. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed a bundle of beige fur and focused on it, what was—

"Whoa!" she exclaimed, absentmindedly yet violently shoving Chat Noir's face out of the way. Jumping to her feet, she sized up the dejected beast, still helplessly pinned under the tangle of fire escape metal beams. _When did that happen?_ she wondered. _Did I miss something?_ Turning back to her partner, she asked incredulously, "Did you do this?"

But Chat just sat there, black felt ears flattened, staring at her uncomprehendingly. With a shrug, Ladybug strolled over to K-9 and unbuckled the collar, easily ripping it in half to expose the purple-streaked black butterfly hiding inside. One de-evilization, goodbye wave to the whitened butterfly, and "Miraculous Ladybug!" later, she turned back to her partner and held out a triumphant fist. " _Bien j_ —"

He still hadn't moved.

Puzzled, Ladybug started to walk back towards him. "What are you doing?" she asked. When he still didn't move or answer, she tried again. "C'mon, talk to me."

Maybe he just wanted a pun? That had to be it, with all the puns he'd made before the fight. She rolled her eyes and smiled at him. "Are you really gonna make me say it? Cat got your—"

That was as far as she got before he lunged up and threw his arms around her.

Ladybug was taken aback. "Chat? What—?"

And then she realized his whole body was shuddering. A little wetness trickled onto her cheek and in her ear, she heard him gasp a little, and that's when it dawned on her.

He was quietly sobbing. In her arms.

The superheroine blinked. _What happened back there, anyway?_ she tried to think. _Last thing I remember was...well, there was the akuma, and it was coming for me, its mouth was open and its teeth were bared...and then everything else is black. Did I pass out, or…?_

 _Wait._

A snatch of memory, the faces of Alya and Ms. Bustier, flitted through her mind.

" _...but what if Ladybug has actual ladybug traits, too?"_

" _...ladybugs will also play dead when threatened..."_

 _Oh no._

Reaching around Chat's neck, she slapped a palm to her forehead and groaned. _Are you kidding me?! Did I really_ _play dead_ _?! Man, Alya will never let me live this down if she finds out…_

Then she realized the shuddering had stopped. In its place was a soft, vibrating rumble.

Chat Noir was purring. In her arms.

 _Oh, Chat,_ she chuckled inwardly. _Guess you thought I was actually dead._ Smiling and shaking her head, she wrapped her arms around her partner and held him tight, her somewhat-whimsical attempt at reassurance. _What a pair we make, acting like our animals._

* * *

High above, a lone black cat stalked the rooftop and gazed imperiously down at the two embracing superheroes below with unnaturally-bright blue eyes.

In a strikingly un-feline gesture of determination, he pressed his lips together and set his jaw.

Another Ladybug, another Chat Noir. Like reading a star-crossed history textbook, that was the thought that kept his mind in its scorn. But maybe, just maybe, with this particular duo, things could finally be made different.

 **A/N Fyi I don't have a particular updating schedule in mind, partly because I'm busy with college, and partly because SleepySundae and I have to do LOADS of back-and-forth communication before I can publish each chapter and that takes kwami-knows-how-long. So again, if this fanfic goes on hiatus and you're anticipating the next chapter, PLEASE feel free to read ahead in the original deviantArt comic! The artist would really appreciate your support!**


	2. Chapter 2a

**A/N An open letter to Maerynn:**

 **Heaven has been blessed with a new angel. Though I never got the chance to personally know you, and only started reading your works the night before your passing, it still shattered me to hear the inconceivable news that you are no longer with us. Your stories are and always will be an irreplaceable, fundamental cornerstone in the building blocks that make up this crazy little fandom we call home. As I pray for the grieving family and friends you were forced to leave behind all too soon, I know that your soul is at peace and that we all have been graced with the time we were lucky enough to have with you at all.**

 **So thank you, thank you _so much_ , for everything. May your beautiful soul rest in peace **❤ ❤ ❤

Chapter 2a

The next morning, Marinette stood waiting at the crosswalk, considerably more rested than the day before and proud of herself for waking up on time today. As the signal changed to "Walk," she set off at a brisk walk across the street, headed for school.

At first, she didn't notice the four tiny legs scurrying up to match her stride. Not until the quiet but resolute "Meow!" caught her ear did she stop on the sidewalk to look down.

"Oh! Hello," she greeted the stray cat, now curling around her right leg and rubbing his shoulder against the hem of her pink capris. Charmed, she knelt down to pet its sleek black fur and couldn't help but think of her superhero partner. "You remind me of someone I know."

The cat shied away from her outstretched hand at first, then hesitantly leaned in to sniff it. Marinette seized the opportunity and reached out her fingers to scratch him under the chin. Seeming to smile at her, the cat began purring.

 _He really does remind me of Chat Noir for some reason, though_. _Obviously the black fur, but there's something else, too. If only this little guy's eyes were green instead of blue, then he could be his altar ego._

A snarky voice interrupted her musings. "Black cats are bad luck, you know."

Turning her head, Marinette grimaced upon seeing none other than her rival Chloé Bourgeois and her yes-man Sabrina Raincomprix observing her from a few meters away. "Come to think of it," Chloé went on with a dainty smirk, "with your clumsiness, you two would make a pretty good pair."

Marinette narrowed her eyes and tried to think of a witty retort, but was saved from doing so when she saw her best friend approach the rich brat from behind.

"Cats are only bad luck if they cross your path, Chloé," Alya corrected her, then winked and leaned down to direct a beckoning hand at the cat. "Here, kitty kitty!"

Suppressing a laugh, Marinette watched as a flash of panic crossed the blonde's face upon realizing she was directly in the path the cat would take toward Alya. "What- _ever_! Not even bad luck could ruin _my_ perfection," she harrumphed, before stalking off with Sabrina in tow.

Alya exchanged a knowing glance with Marinette as she joined her friend. "Cute cat," she commented, leaning down to chuck it under the chin as the other girl had done. She went on to voice her same thoughts, too. "It would almost look like Chat Noir if it weren't for those eyes."

But before her finger could reach the scruff of its neck the cat stiffened, its fur bristling. In one fluid motion it swiveled around and darted back across the street and out of sight, prompting a cry of dismay from Marinette.

"Oh well," Alya shrugged, standing back up. "I'm more of a ladybug person anyway."

That reminded Marinette. As they headed inside the school building to get to class, she nonchalantly asked, "So how did the akuma fight go yesterday?"

In an encouraging sign, Alya groan-sighed and raised her hands to the sky. "Ugh, did you have to bring that up? I didn't get to see a thing! I'm soooooo disappointed! They had all the roads blocked off by the time I got there, I couldn't get _anything_ for the Ladyblog."

"Aww, that's too bad," Marinette sympathized, but inside she was exhaling with relief. _Thank goodness. At least she didn't see that whole "playing dead" nonsense._

 _Or, for that matter, what happened with Chat Noir,_ she remembered. _In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have hugged him back. I mean, I get he was scared pretty badly and needed reassurance… Still, I don't want to give him the wrong idea._

Alya was still yapping away as they walked into class and sat at their desks. "Maybe next time I'll pretend I'm gonna throw up. Then I can get out of class even quicker. Whaddya think, Marinette?"

"I think it sounds like a—" Marinette paused mid-sentence as she noticed the seat in front of her was empty. Grabbing a pencil, she chucked it at the other boy catty-corner to her, too invested in the music blaring from his headphones to hear anything else. "Hey Nino! Where's Adrien?"

"Ow!" Rubbing the back of his head where the pencil had impacted, Nino took off his headphones and turned to face her. "What? Oh, uh, no idea. He hasn't texted me to say he's going to be out or anything. Maybe he had a last-minute modeling gig?"

"Hmm..." Marinette thought for a moment, then shook her head. "No, that's not until the weekend..."

Alya gave her a knowing look. "Yeah, well, not everyone has a calendar with Adrien's schedule on it—"

"ssSSHhoooOOOOOooosh!" Marinette cut her off, hurriedly pressing a finger to her friend's lips for fear the whole class would hear and think she was a stalker. But Alya merely snickered.

Just then the door burst open and in ran Adrien, flushed and breathless. He skidded to a halt in front of Ms. Bustier at the blackboard and gasped out some apology for his tardiness, and she smiled and nodded in understanding. Marinette watched with concern as he thanked her, then plopped into his seat with an overwhelmed sigh.

Nino cracked a warm grin at his friend's dishevelment. "Bro, you look like something the cat dragged in." But his grin faded as Adrien pressed his palms into his forehead and didn't respond. "Dude, what's wrong? You always laugh at cat jokes."

Adrien grunted. "Sorry...I just didn't get a lot of sleep, I guess..."

Marinette bit her lip, her bluebell eyes filled with worry. As first period wore on and Adrien neither perked up nor paid attention to the lecture, her concern grew. Sure, he looked tired as hell, but he also looked...distracted. Something else was on his mind, she was sure of it. Was it a nightmare? A fight with his cold father?

Alya seemed to be reading her thoughts. Leaning over, she put a hand to her mouth and whispered, "You should ask him what's wrong after class."

 _Uh-oh._ Marinette felt her cheeks warm as she instinctively tried to protest. "He already told Nino it's because he didn't sleep much." But the words sounded hollow in her ears, and even she didn't believe them.

"Yeah, but you should ask _why,_ " Alya pressed. "Just think about how touched he'll be to see that you care so much. Then he'll _definitely_ notice you!"

Marinette sighed and looked back at Adrien's drooping sunburst-golden hair.

Why did Alya always have to be so right?

* * *

 _Rrriiiinnggg!_

As class was dismissed for the day, Adrien made himself get up and trudge all the way down the stairs to his locker. But while his hands went through the motions of grabbing and putting away books, his mind was elsewhere. Always returning back to the heart-stopping scene he'd witnessed the night before. Ladybug's neck clamped in the beast's powerful jaws...her lifeless body cast aside on the unforgiving asphalt...how helpless he was to save her...

Adrien squeezed his eyes shut to block it all out, his mind a tangled mess. _I couldn't stop dreaming about it… I know she's okay, but I still kept waking up screaming… Plagg was yelling at me by the end, but he doesn't understand. What would I have done if she was really…? No, no I can't think about that…_

 _I've never even told her how I really feel about her, and to think last night it might've been too late… Every time I try, something interrupts me and I lose my nerve… I know I should just come out and say it, but...but what if she doesn't accept me? What if just saying it isn't enough? I already tried writing a letter to her on Valentine's Day, but that didn't…_

 _What if I got her something? No...Ladybug won't be wooed by some stupid little trinket. She's too smart to be impressed by something so simple and thoughtless… No, it has to be something I put effort into...to show her just how much I care about her…_

 _But I don't have any talent for making things…_

Wrapped up in his thoughts, he didn't notice the whispering voices behind him. "Go on, Marinette! This is your chance!"

"I dunno, Tikki… He seems so lost in thought. How would I even get his attention?"

"Just walk over to him!"

"I caaaaaan't..."

The last bit was slightly louder, just loud enough to interrupt his musings. Adrien turned around to see who was behind him—

—just in time to see an alarmed figure screech and duck behind another row of lockers. "He didn't see me he didn't see me he didn't see me he didn't see me..." someone's voice seemed to squeak.

Puzzled, Adrien walked over and poked his head around the corner to see who he'd spooked. "Marinette?"

The girl's eyes popped out of her head and she leapt back in shock, with what could only be described as a silent scream coming from her mouth. Then came the babbling. "Oooh w-waha-uuhha I'm sooaoorry I-I-I m-mean I de-de-definitely w-waasn't wuh wuh uwh waaatching youu I-I wa-was jjjjust uhhh h-h-here busying my mindne—I M-MEAN min-minding m-my..."

Adrien blinked. _Boy, she sure seems on edge today_. Then again, poor Marinette had a tendency to get flustered at basically everything, at least as far as he ever saw her. Vaguely he wondered if she ever jumped that badly at anything while sewing or doing any other project, and how many commissions she might've screwed up in the past—

Wait. Commissions. Sewing. Projects.

Suddenly he got an idea.

"Marinette!" he exclaimed, grabbing her by the wrist without thinking. "You're very talented and _amazing_ at making things. Of course, _you_ can help me!"

The girl's face flushed right up to the tips of her ears, and she started to tremble. "Oh!" she breathed, swaying and tottering backwards on her heels.

"Um, are you okay?" a bewildered Adrien asked. Then he looked down at his hands, still clutching her wrist. Horrified at himself, he immediately dropped it as if his hands had been burned. "I'm so sorry, that was so rude!"

"It's fiiiiiine..."

"You don't _have_ to help me either, I guess," he went on, feeling bad for his actions. No wonder the poor girl was in shock.

"It's fiii—h-help?"

 _Way to go, genius. You can't even get a full explanation out to your classmate._ "Oh, uh, yeah. There's something I want to make—something special… But I can't make it by myself." _Cuz I have no creative talents._

Marinette cocked her head, suddenly solemn. "Is that what's been bothering you all morning?"

He looked sharply at her, surprised at her astuteness. _Yeesh, was I really that obvious? Who else saw I was moping?_

She took this the wrong way, of course. "N-N-Not that t-that's any of my business!" she stammered in a panicked voice. "It's n-not like I was s-staring at you or anything! I j-just couldn't help b-but notice you, er, th-that you s-seemed kinda down and ummm..."

Adrien shook his head, trying to find the words to explain himself without mentioning Ladybug. "No...you're right. Something happened and it kind of made me worried about the future, I guess. I want to make good memories while I can and I thought that maybe making this thing might—well, y'know, help me be able to make those good memories that I want." He paused. "I mean, that is...well, with you...to help me..." _If you even want to._

For a long moment she was quiet, and he took her silence as a negative. "Never mind," he said, turning to leave. "I know this is weird and sudden. I'm sorry for bothering you."

" _I'll do it!_ "

He stopped, surprised. "Really?"

Marinette, looking just as surprised at herself, nodded furiously. "Yes!"

It was as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders, and Adrien felt himself relax. "Thank you so much!"

"Anytime! Whaddya wanna make?"

"What—" He hesitated, realizing too late he hadn't actually thought this far ahead. "Uhh...umm...I guess...maybe something that...like, that can be worn?" _Wait no, that wouldn't work._ "But not like...uh...not like a shirt or anything! Because...because..." _Because I won't be able to see her wear it. Yeah_ _that_ _doesn't sound fishy at all._

Fortunately, Marinette seemed to understand. "So...like an accessory? Like a hat or scarf? Or like jewelry?"

"I dunno..." _Dagnabbit, why didn't I think this through?_ he thought, running a hand through his hair. "I'm sorry. I'm being so vague and indecisive."

"It's okay," she said, looking deep in thought. "I oughta get used to it, I'll probably have to deal with a lot of clients like that in my career..." Then her eyes widened and she quickly thrust up her hands in a _wait-a-minute-ignore-what-I-just-said_ gesture. "I-I mean—no! You're not being vague at all! It's—I mean, I can totally..." She paused and appeared to collect herself. "You said you wanted it to be something special, right?"

He nodded. "Yeah…?"

"Well, then it should be unique! New. And...yeah, special!"

"Yeah." A slow smile spread across his face as he warmed up to her words. "Yeah—that's exactly what I want!"

She giggled. "G-Great! I'll design some sket—I mean, sketch some designs tonight. Is it okay if I, um, bring them tomorrow to show you? I mean, uh, d-does that work?"

"Absolutely," he assured her gratefully. "This is really nice of you, Marinette. I can't thank you enough. I promise I'll make it up to you."

"I-It's fine!" she said, a little of her earlier flush still lingering on her cheeks. "Really, don't—don't worry about it."

Adrien smiled and shrugged. "Obviously I don't expect you to do the whole thing for me by yourself. When we've decided what we're going to make, we'll work on it together."

Just then his phone buzzed. Pulling it out, he glanced at the new text message with a jolt of alarm. "Oh man, I'm late for piano lessons." He hurried for the door out to the gym, turning back to wave as he went. "Thanks Marinette, you're the best!"

 _Good,_ he thought as he ran out the front entrance to where Nathalie and the Gorilla were waiting for him outside. _If I can figure out how to come up with a special gift for Ladybug, maybe I can figure out how to tell her I'm in love with her._

* * *

 _...Amazing...talented...with you with you with you...Together Together Together…THE BEST?_

"THE BEST!" Marinette echoed aloud with a double-fistpump. Starry-eyed and feeling as if her soul had left her body— _Eeeep does Adrien Agreste really think of me that way?!_ —she barely registered her jittery self skipping all the way home, the door to her family bakery chiming its congratulations as she burst in.

"Welcome home, sweetie!" her mother greeted as she helped her husband pull out trays of chocolate chip cookies. "You look like you've had a good day today."

"I sure did!" Marinette beamed, then took off at a steady dash until she was up the ladder and through the trapdoor to her loft bedroom. As Tikki fluttered out of the little hip purse, the girl slid into her desk chair and slapped her sketchbook on the tabletop. "I'M SO EXCITED!" she declared, her voice barely suppressing a whoop of joy. "I'm gonna make a bunch of designs _right now!_ Adrien, I will not disappoint you, my love!"

Tikki chortled. "Oh, Marinette..."

All afternoon and into the evening, Marinette sketched, erased, sketched, groaned, sketched, googled various images, sketched, sighed, tore out pages, and sketched some more. The golden late summer sunlight streaming through her windows gave way to early autumn dusk, which in turn gave way to velvety darkness tinged blue by Parisian city lights. At some point she probably ate dinner, but her mind was buried in her art and designs, and wouldn't rest until she had found something worthy of the boy she loved, who maybe now was finally, _finally_ noticing her.

Trouble was, it was hard to come up with such a design that mirrored his immaculate perfection.

As night fell and still she hemmed and hawed at her unworthy attempts to strive for such flawlessness, Tikki tried to step in. "I like this one!" she said from her seat at the top of the sketchbook, pointing at a design from two sketches ago. "I think it's very nice!"

"Yeah, but 'very nice' isn't good enough," Marinette countered. "It needs to be _perfect._ "

Glancing up at the nearby window, Marinette realized her brain was trapped in a slump. And when it was trapped in a slump, there was only one thing left for her to do. With a knowing grin, she winked at the kwami and said, "I need inspiration."

Moments later, Ladybug swung over the rooftops of Paris, directing her yo-yo to take her to the most inspiring sight of the entire city. Landing lightly on the rooftop of what happened to be the Agreste mansion, she gazed fondly up at the Eiffel Tower in all its lit-up splendor, as usual struck with awe and a slight sense of longing. Even with the countless number of times she and Chat Noir had scaled the iron framework to fight some akumatized supervillain, she could never get used to how proud and intricately beautiful it was.

Speaking of Chat Noir, a prickle on the back of her neck told the superheroine she wasn't alone up here.

A split second later she felt something soft bump into her back, hard enough that if she hadn't sensed his presence just now she might've lost her balance and fallen off the roof. Miffed, she huffed and whirled on her partner. " _What_ are you doing? I don't have time for your weird cat things, Chat."

Then she actually took a look at him, and her annoyance died. Everything about him was drooping, from his hair and his felt ears to his feline eyes, from his lower lip to his shoulders and posture. For a moment, Ladybug felt her heart soften as she remembered the way he clung to her yesterday, after her accidental playing-dead stunt.

Until she reminded herself that this was _Chat Noir_.

The moment past, she rolled her eyes. "Don't make me say 'cat got your tongue' again," she teased, acknowledging the previous night without losing her playful wit. "Though I guess I just did."

He blinked, but otherwise didn't move. Ladybug watched him for a little while longer, then on impulse stepped behind him and deftly swiped her leg through his knees.

"Yipe!"

Caught off guard, Chat fell on his back, and Ladybug burst out laughing at the surprise written all over his face, secretly relieved his droop was gone. "Not even you can spoil my good mood, Chat Noir!" she managed to smirk.

He looked at her in befuddlement for a second longer, then she saw him perk up. _Uh-oh, here it comes,_ she thought with another laugh, and immediately took off running across the rooftops. Sure enough she heard boots pounding behind her, and his laughter joined hers as they launched into an impromptu game of tag, destined to last for hours as the superheroes cavorted all across Paris.

But while Ladybug enjoyed herself that night, by the morning Marinette was regretting the neglect of her latest commission. _I never did come up with the perfect design for Adrien_ , she lamented as she stepped out of the bakery door, her papa's "Good luck at school!" seeing her out. _I can't believe I let Chat Noir distract me for so long._

Lost in thought, it didn't occur to her that she'd been absentmindedly staring at a woman near the crosswalk for the past minute or so until the woman glanced over her shoulder and noticed.

And just like that Marinette found themselves locking eyes.

You know those rare moments in life when two people, destined to cross paths in some future earth-shaking climax, suddenly see each other for the first time, and time seems to stop while their surroundings blur into the background, leaving only the two of them in each other's existence? Most often this kind of ephemeral instant in time involves two soulmates in a love-at-first-sight scenario, like the moment Romeo and Juliet first laid eyes on each other at the Capulet party and it ignited a forbidden romance that ultimately destroyed them both. But then there are the enemies-at-first-sight, who catch each other's eye in the most mundane of places and give a subtle nod, knowing one day they will meet as arch-nemeses in a final showdown while the world burns around them. One knows this had to have happened to, say, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, before that fateful summer morning at Weehawken. And then there's the kind where two people notice each other and don't know why, but some niggling little voice in the back of their heads tells them to remember this person, they'll play a crucial role in their own life later on down the road, and neither of them know what that role might be, but all the same they tuck away the memory of their first encounter in a spot in their mind where they know they can pull it back out at a moment's notice.

Such was the case with Marinette Dupain-Cheng and the mysterious woman at the crosswalk.

Marinette wasn't sure what about the woman had snagged her attention and screamed LOOK AT HER AND REMEMBER. Was it the familiar-looking peridot eyes and blonde hair? The red, black, and pink color scheme of her casually elegant clothes, eerily similar to her own? The ladybug that had landed on her finger, only lazily drifting away when the woman turned to meet her gaze?

Or was it that odd little design emblem on her brown purse?

Whatever it was, Marinette was just coming to the realization that they were both staring at each other and that this wasn't some chance encounter, when the spell was broken. With a tiny cry of delight, the woman broke into a wide grin and darted straight for her.

" _HI!_ "

Marinette was taken aback, literally. "Um...hello," she replied, rooted to the spot in shock.

The woman laughed and waved a hand dismissively. "Oh! No, my dear, you don't need to be so _formal_ with me!"

 _My dear? What? Do I know this woman? Does she know me somehow?_ Marinette had no idea how to respond. "Umm..." Suddenly self-conscious, she found her gaze drifting back to the purse emblem.

The woman noticed. "Oh, do you like my bag?" she asked brightly, holding it out. "I made it myself!"

"You did?" Marinette smiled, glad for something to make this strange conversation a bit less awkward. "I like making clothes, too."

"REALLY?!"

Marinette jumped, not expecting such a strong reaction. The woman looked positively over the moon, her eyes sparkling and her voice near a squeal. _She's a little weird,_ she thought, pointing out the obvious to herself. "Umm...I take it you're a designer?"

Just as suddenly, the woman's enthusiasm died. "I a—" She blinked and looked away, suddenly looking lost. "I was," she finally sighed, sheepishly.

It was Marinette's turn to blink. "Oh..." she said, not sure what that meant and not sure how to respond.

But it seemed she didn't have to. Something else had caught the woman's attention, and quickly she reached into her purse and pulled out a business card. "Here," she said, handing it to Marinette.

She took the pastel pink card and examined it. _Le Ladybird Volant,_ it read in a golden cursive. The Flying Ladybird. _This looks very professional,_ she marveled.

"What's your name?" the woman asked.

She looked up. "Um...M-Marinette," she told her, hesitating.

The woman smiled and waved at her, turning toward the adjacent crosswalk leading away from the school. "It's nice to meet you, Marinette. I'm sure we'll meet again." And with that, she was gone.

Marinette watched her go for a long moment.

Then she remembered the business card in her hand, and reality jerked her back to her senses. _Did I just meet a famous designer?_

* * *

After crossing the street and leaving the bewildered teen behind, the mysterious woman ducked into a nearby alleyway and looked around. She'd spotted a very familiar-looking black cat with electric blue eyes on top of one of these buildings, and sensed he was watching her. Probably with disapproval.

Like she cared about _that_.

"You shouldn't get involved," a surly, gravelly voice said from somewhere above her.

The woman looked up and, sure enough, there was the cat perched above her on a fire escape, his tail swishing lazily and his eyes narrowed. Anyone else might've kept looking for the person who'd said that, but the woman knew better. "You're one to talk," she smirked, unperturbed. "After all, you met her too. Didn't you?"

The cat didn't move, but she was well aware he was just a tad bit more provoked than before. "And anyways, I didn't even know it was her!" she went on, too excited to pay his mood any mind. "I was just surprised because she was staring at me. Oh, and guess what? She likes designing, too! Isn't it such a coincidence?" She was squealing by now. "Eeep, we're gonna get along so well!"

The cat rolled his eyes and stood up, ready to stalk off.

"Hey, wait a minute," the woman called after him expectantly, but the cat ignored her. So she tried a different tactic.

" _Félix._ "

At the sound of his name, the cat stopped. A beam of morning sunlight cast a shadow on the wall behind him, but instead of the expected feline shape, his shadow was that of a tall young man with shaggy hair and a little cowlick on the forehead. The woman knew why, of course, for the same reason he could speak to her like a normal human being. Not that he had much he felt like saying these days.

"Ladybug and Chat Noir are friends this time," she pressed on. "You know that, right?"

Again, he didn't respond.

"...Of course you do," the woman answered her own question, giving him a knowing look. "That's why you're here, too."

Baring his teeth, Félix hissed at her briefly, then leapt off the fire escape and over an adjacent wall.

Now _she_ was annoyed. "Hey!" she yelled after him, knowing it was futile. When Félix wanted to end a conversation, he made quick work of it. She pursed her lips and scratched her head. "Ugh, that guy is so moody," she muttered, wondering how she might hold his attention for longer than thirty seconds next time.


	3. Chapter 2b

Chapter 2b

At a study table inside the school library, Marinette was taking advantage of her Study Hall hour to ignore her homework and recreate the curious design on the woman's bag, burned clearly into her memory, by copying it out in her sketchbook. _Funny I've never seen or heard of it before, though,_ she mused as she sketched what she would've called a cross between a bizarre-looking bird and a yin-yang symbol. _I don't think it's a brand. She said she made it herself and she wasn't a designer anymore, that could mean anything._ She paused and glanced at the business card again, tucked away in her hip purse next to the sleeping form of Tikki. _The Flying Ladybird? What even_ _is_ _a ladybird? Looks like an English word, I should probably google it later—_

"Hi, Marinette."

Okay, in hindsight the outright scream that erupted from her lungs following his approach was not only utterly inappropriate in a library, but probably could have even been avoided entirely. Normally when her crush snuck up on her like that, she was usually able to keep it down to a single limb-flailing leap backward and a shriek of reasonable volume. As the library was filled with dozens of _Shushhh!_ es and Adrien looked mortified, the one thing Marinette could take solace in was that she only fell halfway out of her chair, saving herself an unceremonious crash to the floor.

Worse, now Adrien was apologizing. "Oh goodness, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to sneak up on you like that, I know you're kinda jumpy..."

Marinette tried to find the words to assure him that it wasn't his fault, but as usual her tongue was tied in Gordian knots.

But by then Adrien had trailed off, his gaze transfixed by the sketchbook lying open on the table. "Is this one of your designs?" he asked, eyes lit up as he picked up the sketchbook for a better look.

"Huh? Oh no, that's—"

She faltered, noticing Adrien's glowing joy had shifted into an odd puzzlement. His brow furrowed as he stared at the quick pencil sketch, and Marinette wasn't sure what to make of this reaction. "I feel like I've seen this somewhere..." he finally murmured, half to himself.

"Oh? R-Really?"

Then he blinked, and the normal glow was back. "Can we make this?" he asked eagerly.

"Huh?" It was Marinette's turn to blink. Of course she wanted to please Adrien as best she could, but...the Flying Ladybird emblem wasn't hers to offer. As a budding young fashion designer, she knew all too well how much a knockoff of an original design could be disdained, if not censored for plagiarization, and she was right to hesitate. "But it's—"

"—too hard?" Adrien finished weakly, his joy dimming again.

The puppy dog eyes reminding her that _this was her crush doggonit,_ Marinette abruptly stood up and slammed her hands on the table. "NO!" she insisted, forgetting her hesitations and ignoring the fresh wave of _shush_ es her outburst prompted. "We can make it!"

Once again, Adrien's eyes lit up. "Really?"

Mustering up some fresh resolve, she squeezed her eyes shut and nodded. "Yes!"

"Great!" Adrien said, and this time it was his turn to be the recipient of a lone _shush_. "I already told Nathalie I have a project, which is technically not a lie, so I have the week off. I can come to your house after school today to work on it, is that okay?"

Marinette could feel the stars bursting in her eyes. "Yyyessssss..." she breathed.

"Great!" he smiled, turning to leave. "I'll see you then."

She watched him go, a blush tinting her cheeks and a stupid grin on her face.

"Marineeeette..."

Without warning she was tackled out of her chair by a fiery brown blob. "CONGRATULATIONS! I'M SO PROUD OF YOU!"

" _Sshhhhh!_ "

Marinette had barely registered her best friend was the inhabitant of the blob and _had been spying on her_ when a shadow fell over them both, and she looked up directly into the beady glittering eyes of Ms. Mendeleev. "If you're not going to be quiet in the library, then _leave!_ " she demanded.

Funnily enough, a lone voice from back in the stacks hissed a " _Shh!_ "

Moments later, Marinette was joined by Alya and Nino as they congregated in the hallway just outside the library. "I'm so happy for you, Marinette!" Alya gushed. "So are you guys dating now or what?"

The girl beamed and clasped her hands bashfully. "Not technically. But he did ask me to make something for him!"

Alya's eyebrows shot up. "Oh?"

" _With_ him!" she went on dreamily, reimagining Adrien clasping her hands and swearing it could only be her. "He said he wants to make _memories_ with me!"

"Girl, no way!" Alya shrieked, gripping a giggling Marinette by the shoulders. "He's totally into you!"

"But did you like... _ask_ him why he wants to make this?"

"Huh?" Marinette quelled her giggles, looking at Nino uncomprehendingly.

"I mean, doesn't seem a little weird and sudden?" he asked, concern and apprehension written across his face.

Before Marinette could reply, Alya angrily cut in. " _No._ He just must've been too shy to ask before. God, Nino, stop being such a buzzkill."

Nino cringed. "I'm not trying to, I just don't think it's a good idea to get your hopes up."

But Alya was having none of it. "Shut up, Nino. You just can't see it the way we do," she said dismissively, ushering Marinette away from him. When he was out of earshot, she whispered, "Keep me posted, girl. I want a text _every night_ telling me what happened, okay?"

Marinette shook her head and laughed. "Okay."

As she walked off, she didn't catch the worried look Nino watched her with.

* * *

After school, Marinette was up in her bedroom putting away her backpack when she heard a tinkling yawn. Smiling at the hip purse set carefully on her sewing table, she watched Tikki crawl out and rub her eyes. _Wow, she must've slept all day._ "I'm sorry for exhausting you so late last night," she apologized, once again regretting her cavort with Chat Noir.

"It's okay," the kwami chuckled blearily.

Satisfied, Marinette went on. "But hey, guess what? I have a design Adrien really likes!"

At that, Tikki perked up. "Really? Let me see."

The girl was already reaching for her sketchbook. Flipping it open to the right page, she held it up proudly. "It's this!"

But instead of saying something like the "Ooh, how nice!" Marinette was expecting, the kwami was silent. Peering over her sketchbook, she saw her frowning at the pencil sketch. "Did...did you design that?" Tikki asked after awhile, voice thick with skepticism and...something else.

Marinette cocked her head. "Umm...no. I just saw it and—"

"You shouldn't steal someone else's design, Marinette," Tikki admonished her, rather curtly.

That took her aback. "I know, but...well, he really wants to make it," she tried to protest. "Why, do you know this design from somewhere?"

Tikki's eyes widened and she opened her mouth to reply, but a shout from downstairs interrupted her. "Marinette!" her mom called. "Your friend is here!"

As Marinette glanced behind her, Tikki dutifully dove back into the hip purse still lying on the table. "Uh, great!" she called back. "Tell him to come on up!" She looked back at the purse questioningly, wishing she had time to ask Tikki about the design, not to mention the eccentric woman she'd met this morning. _Guess it'll have to wait for later,_ she told herself.

But all thoughts of "later" were forgotten as the trap door opened and up popped Adrien. "Hey, Marinette!" he greeted her cheerfully. "I really can't thank you enough for doing this."

"I-It's fine!" she insisted, managing a wide smile. _Adrien Agreste is in my house. Adrien Agreste is IN my HOUSE. ADRIEN AGRESTE IS IN MY HOUSE!_

"Um, where would you like me to sit?"

That snapped her out of her paralyzed thoughts. "Oh! Um, here!" she hurriedly said, motioning to the chair beside her and mentally berating herself for not acting like a normal human being for _once_ around her crush.

Adrien, meanwhile, was looking at the pencil sketch again. "So I guess we'll put it onto something?" he asked, looking up at her. "Like embroidery?"

"What? Oh no no no, let's make it!" she said, hoping that didn't sound too pushy. _Remember, it's gotta be something he can help me make,_ she reminded herself. "Like a pendant, or a...or a brooch."

"Sure! And that wouldn't be too hard?"

Marinette shrugged. "I don't know! But I never will if I don't try." She sat up straighter as a hint of pride crept into her explanation. "And if I find out that I can do it after thinking it was too hard, I'll just feel that much more proud of myself. It's how I approach all my projects."

Adrien blinked and nodded slightly, an odd look in his eyes.

 _Crap, I just ramble-boasted! In front of_ _Adrien_ _!_ "S-Sorry!" she cut herself off, holding up her hands in an apology gesture. "I didn't mean to start bragging."

He smiled, the odd look still there. "No, not at all. I think that's very admirable."

Marinette blushed and wrung her hands. Of course. The odd look was admiration, she'd just never seen Adrien direct it at _her_ before.

She could get used to this.

But for the time being, she was in danger of melting into a puddle of bliss if she and Adrien didn't start this project soon. "U-Umm...let's, uh, let's start, hehe!"

* * *

From that afternoon on, the next week passed in a blur. Adrien came over every weekday after school and for a couple hours on the weekend to help her out, the two spending almost as much time laughing and chatting over their many mistakes in the creative process as they spent actually being productive. (By far the most eventful episode was when they borrowed Mr. Dupain's culinary blow torch and accidentally put in too much butane, and their classmates could only wonder why they showed up to school with soot marks and scratches all over their faces and hair.) And as each day went by, Marinette grew more visibly relaxed and less nervous around Adrien, and as she texted Alya each night, the two girls planned her confession speech for when the brooch was finished. Meanwhile, with no akumas during that time, Ladybug and Chat Noir enjoyed plenty of citywide games of tag or hide-and-seek or both on their nightly patrols, accompanied by the usual pun-filled banter. One night they sat on a building overlooking the Eiffel Tower and drank hot chocolate (Ladybug made sure to bring the lactose-free variety for her feline partner), and a lovesick Chat couldn't wait to bring the gift he was working on for His Lady.

"It took the whole week, but it's finally done," Marinette told Tikki on her walk to school one week later, examining the brooch's shimmering green, red and gold. "All that's left is to put this pin on it, which Adrien can do himself." She took a deep breath. "Tikki, what are the odds I might finally be able to go through with asking him out when I give this to him?"

Tikki, however, was only half-listening. All that week she'd watched Marinette occupied with Adrien, the two hadn't since spoken about the original Flying Ladybird emblem. It truly had been a long time since Tikki last saw that emblem, but even so she'd recognize it anywhere. _Is it possible, then? Could she...could she really be back?_

She felt a tap on the hip purse. "Are you okay, Tikki? You've been rather quiet lately."

The kwami looked up into the girl's concerned eyes and sighed. "It's nothing..." she said, extremely unconvincingly. To her relief Marinette didn't press the issue.

 _I wish I could explain it, but I don't want to get my own hopes up,_ she thought, as if apologizing for not explaining her behavior better. _She_ _wasn't supposed to ever come back. I wasn't supposed to be able to see her ever again, no one was. But if that's true, then where else could Marinette have seen that design? Oh, I wish I hadn't been asleep that entire day_ —

She started. At that precise moment, she... _sensed_ something. Like a stream of color in a grayscale world, a ripple of magic wafted her way, signalling a presence. No, two presences. Ones she hadn't felt in a very long time…

The next moment, she darted out of the purse and zoomed after it.

"TIKKI!" Marinette called after her in alarm. "You can't fly out in the open like that!"

But Tikki wasn't listening. Paying no heed to her surroundings, she focused on the magic and followed its trail back down the way they'd come, then around the corner into a tiny alleyway—

—and stopped cold.

Marinette skidded to a halt behind her, almost slamming into the far wall of the alley. "Seriously, Tikki, I really don't wanna be late for school this t—"

She too stopped cold.

Standing a few paces in front of them was a small, elderly man with his eyes closed, dressed in a jade green shirt with black slacks and a simple pair of sandals. His right hand clutched a sturdy wooden cane, while his left hand was folded behind his back. Hovering beside his head was a tiny green figure, its shape reminiscent of a cross between a sea turtle and Dipsy the Teletubby.

The latter was Wayzz, a fellow kwami she hadn't seen in decades. And neither he nor his Miraculous holder looked too pleased.

"Master Fu! It's been so long, I'm happy to see you again," she uneasily greeted the man she'd known for centuries, afraid she knew exactly what he had traveled halfway across the globe to do. "But why are you...here? In Paris..." _I thought you weren't supposed to leave China?_

The man, Master Fu, opened his eyes. They were brown, but right now they glinted with a cold, unsettling orange hue. Slowly he withdrew his left arm out from behind his back and opened his hand, revealing a small octagonal black box with red calligraphy. "I think you know why," he said in a low, menacing voice.

Tikki gulped. She stared at him, unable, _unwilling_ to comprehend. _Not yet_ , she could only think, _please not yet._

Wayzz floated forward. "It's time to end this madness," he stated matter-of-factly.

"But—"

"It's over, Tikki. This world does not need us anymore. Our job was finished a long time ago."

"But...Nooroo..." Surely they hadn't forgotten why Ladybug and Chat Noir were fighting Hawkmoth in the first place? How the butterfly kwami was trapped, held against his will?

"We'll take care of Nooroo," Master Fu assured her.

Tikki, however, wasn't reassured in the slightest. _Not yet, please not yet._ She shook her head and hugged herself, scrabbling for some scrap of logic that might make them see sense. "It's our job to keep the humans safe from—"

" _FROM WHO?!_ "

She flinched at Wayzz's outburst.

"From who, Tikki?" he went on, exasperated. "From—from _us?!_ We're the only ones left! Without a purpose, our powers are only being abused, you _know_ that! It's happening _now_. It's...it's happened before."

Tikki bit her lip. The nuance in his last phrase wasn't lost on her, and she wished he wasn't so damned right.

 _Not yet...please not yet…_

She heard Marinette step closer to her. "Tikki…? What's going on?"

Master Fu's eyes narrowed to slits. "Wayzz?"

"Yes, Master."

The turtle kwami raised his arms to the single antenna protruding from his forehead, and an ominous green light swirled at its tip. " **Forget...** " he intoned, aiming it straight for the flesh between Marinette's eyes.

Tikki felt her heart turn to ice.

No.

 _No._

 _No!_

" _NO!_ " she screamed, and dove forward.

A green laser beamed out of Wayzz.

Deflected off of Tikki.

And shot straight into—

 _Schhhttiiinnng!_

"Augh!" Marinette cried out in pain and crumpled to the ground.

" _Marinette!_ "

At once Tikki flew to her side anxiously. The magic, it was splashed all over her face and hair, its aura radiant against the mundane backdrop of the nonmagical world. But perceiving it on a human being other than Master Fu or a transformed Miraculous holder felt so...so... _wrong._

"What did you do?" Master Fu gasped.

"I—I...I don't know!" Wayzz spluttered. "That wasn't—it was supposed to—I missed. I don't know what I did."

"Nnnaaaggggh..." Moaning and wincing, Marinette rolled over on her side, hands clutching her left eye.

Tikki reached out a paw to comfort her, then stopped. _It's my fault_ , she thought, squeezing her eyes shut. _No way around it, I shouldn't have interfered. Wayzz is right, our purpose is long gone. And as much as I hate it, maybe...maybe Master Fu is right, too. He is the Great Guardian, after all._

The thought had a sour tone to it, even unspoken. Heaving a sigh, Tikki left her holder and hovered up to face the old man, shoulders slumped. "Okay...I'll go," she mumbled, with one last sad look at the girl curled up on the ground below her. "Without a purpose, we only cause harm."

She closed her eyes and prepared for what was to come next.

* * *

Marinette cracked one eye open.

If she'd cared to look in a mirror at that moment, she would've noticed a mysterious scarlet ring around her left pupil, blocking part of the iris's normal bluebell color.

But her thoughts were far from any mirror at the moment. Far from herself. Even the initial pain was fading, replaced by one thought.

 _I don't know who these people are, but NOBODY takes away my kwami._

* * *

Master Fu bowed his head and closed his eyes. "I'm glad you understand," he said, clearly about to drift into a monologue. (Under any other circumstances, Wayzz might've been tempted to roll his eyes.) "A long time ago, you and the other kwamis entrusted me to look after the Miraculous and make sure they were being used for their intended purposes by people pure of heart."

Suddenly a hand shot up and snatched Tikki out of the air. Wayzz watched in growing alarm as the human girl dragged the squirming, wide-eyed kwami out of the alley and around the corner. "Master?" he said, his voice rising an octave.

"But times have changed," Fu continued on, oblivious to the escape. "This world is not what it used to be..."

"Master."

"...and people are not who they used to be..."

"Master."

"...and it's time to realize that—"

"Master."

"—we are not meant to—"

"Master!"

"WHAT IS IT, WAYZZ?!" he roared, whirling on the kwami. "Can't you see I'm monologuing?"

This time Wayzz actually did roll his eyes. "They're gone," he said simply.

Master Fu opened his eyes. His face turned purple.

The cane clattered to the ground, forgotten.

" _WHAT?!_ "

* * *

Clutched inside Marinette's sweating palms, Tikki felt the girl run for what felt like several long minutes, only stopping once they had rounded some kind of corner. Several more seconds passed while Marinette audibly tried to catch her breath before the hands reopened, and Tikki noted their position on the far side of the main staircase entrance to the Collège Françoise Dupont.

Then she looked at her holder, a mix of awe and confusion at the girl's actions warming her heart. "Why...why would you do that?"

Marinette looked close to tears. "Because you were going to leave with them! Why would _you_ do that?"

She had a point. If nothing else, Marinette was _loyal_ to people, and it was only fair for her to expect the same of Tikki. The kwami felt a rush of pride as she remembered sensing that loyalty upon encountering the teenager for the first time, watching her selflessly shield little Manon from an oncoming car while everyone else was distracted on their smartphones, and she'd decided then and there, _This one. She will be my next Miraculous holder. I won't lose her like I lost...the others_.

And now that loyalty was in question, for reasons beyond her control. More than anything, Tikki wished she could explain it. There was so much she hadn't told Marinette, convincing herself it was for the girl's own safety, but now…

No. Better to stick with the unsatisfying but safe explanation, rather than letting her know too much. "It's...it's a long story, spanning eons ago..."

She looked up, scanning Marinette's face for any lingering traces of magic. "More importantly, are you okay?" she asked, noting the initial splash had shrunk down to only a tiny residue in her left eye.

Marinette blinked. "Huh?"

"That blast..." Tikki began, floating up to eye level with her. "...he was trying to make you forget about me. About being Ladybug. But he has to hit you in a specific spot on your forehead." She winced. "He missed because of me, but it still hit you… How do you feel?"

She rubbed her temples. "A little anxious, I guess...and...I can't seem to remember what we learned in math class yesterday..."

Tikki breathed a sigh of relief. _Good, there seem to've been no side effects._ "But that's normal for you, Marinette!" she giggled.

"I guess so," Marinette chuckled back. Then her eyes grew worried again. "They won't follow us, will they?"

"I don't know..." Tikki admitted, glancing over her shoulder instinctively. "But if they come back, I'll handle it. So don't worry about it."

Marinette gave her a long look, not quite convinced. "Only if you promise not to go away with them."

"I won't," Tikki promised, gazing down at her paws. For all she had to keep hidden, she owed the girl at least a vague explanation. "No matter what he says, Wayzz is wrong. I _do_ still have a purpose. There's something I need to finish."

 _And I won't leave Marinette until I do._

* * *

Marinette had so many questions about everything from the past five minutes.

But life had other ideas.

 _Rrriiiinnggg!_

Marinette jumped as she realized that was the nine o' clock bell. " _Ahh! I'm late!_ " she exclaimed, galvanizing herself into action as Tikki hid in her purse. So much for getting any of her questions answered.

She couldn't decide whether she was happy or not that this would mean she wouldn't get to confess to Adrien until they got out for lunch.

Thankful she'd brought her textbooks home and already had them in her backpack, Marinette skipped the trip to the locker room and beelined straight for her first period. As she slid into her seat behind Ms. Bustier's back, she noticed Alya still wasn't here yet. _That's strange, Alya's almost never late. She didn't tell me she'd be missing school today._ Surreptitiously, she slipped her phone out of her pocket and checked for any text messages.

Sure enough, there was one. " _Girls r sick. Not gonna be in til after lunch. Good luck!_ "

Marinette gulped.

The first few classes passed without much fanfare, and pretty soon it was time to be dismissed for the lunch period. Brooch clutched in hand and her nerves acting out of control, Marinette practically quivered as she walked down to the locker room, where she'd already told Adrien she'd meet him to give him the finished product.

Luckily, she had a backup wingman hiding in her hip purse. "Don't lose courage now, Marinette," Tikki cheered softly. "You've been planning this all week, you can do it!"

Marinette smiled down at her.

"Hi, Marinette."

" _NGGggg—!_ " she stifled a scream. _Oh gosh, this is really happening…_ Wordlessly she turned around to face him and held out the brooch, wishing her face would stop flushing already.

Adrien took it and gazed awestruck at the breathtaking red and gold shimmer, the tiny emerald glinting in the light. "Wow, it looks amazing!"

Marinette looked down at her feet. "I'm glad you like it," she smiled, "it was a lot of fun to make."

"Yeah, I think so, too." He stepped closer to her. "You know, I always felt like we didn't know each other as much as we should. I'm really glad we were able to do this together. I wasn't really sure before if we were friends, but now that we know each other a little better—"

She looked up and caught her breath.

"—I'm glad you're my friend, Marinette."

If there was any hope of suppressing her flush, it was tossed out the window as she felt her face grow very, very warm. "Mmmmmee tooooo..."

He tucked the brooch in his bookbag. "And I still owe you one for this. Anytime you need a favor, just let me know."

"It'sss fiiiine..."

"Anyhow, I think my ride is here. I'll see you back in class."

He walked past her.

Adrien was _walking past her._

Something hit Marinette like an ice-cold shower, and she came back to her senses. _Oh no, he's leaving! Don't let him leave nooooo I can't do this I can't do this I can't do this I can't_

"Ah—wait!"

He paused. "Yeah?"

Her heart pounded. Shocked that actually worked, Marinette wrung her hands and looked away. Alya's voice filled her mind: " _Girl, what are you doing? Just spit it out, for heaven's sake!"_

She squeezed her eyes shut. Her face was so red she felt it might explode.

Adrien was waiting.

Marinette grit her teeth. "I...ah...w—w-will you… …"

…

 **A/N Sorry for the cliffhanger, but that's how SleepySundae ended Chapter 2 in the comic (which you should really go check out on DeviantArt if you haven't already!). Also, just a reminder that Master Fu is _super_ OOC in this story, for reasons that will become clearer later on.**


	4. Chapter 3a

Chapter 3a

Wait.

What?

He must have misheard.

Did she just ask him to…?

 _What?_

Adrien's mind was racing. Did Marinette just ask him out? Did that mean she had feelings for him? Since when? Where were the signs? Sure, she did act differently around him than she did around any of her other friends. _But I always assumed it was because she didn't like me very much_ , he reasoned weakly. _I mean, I suppose a lot of that strange behavior involved startled jumping, beet-red blushing and incoherent stammering, which she doesn't do around her other friends, but…but still...it can't…_

Okay fine, there was a very good chance Adrien was an oblivious idiot and so totally screwed right now. Marinette was staring at him expectantly, her posture still and just a bit tense, her face composed, her eyes unclouded and locked onto his, patiently awaiting his answer. _How am I supposed to respond to this?_ She'd caught him completely off guard. This wasn't at all how he expected this day to go.

 _How long has she been trying to say this to me?_

It felt like an eternity went by, but it was probably only about five seconds. The struggle must've been evident on his face, Adrien realized, as he saw Marinette's eyes widen just a fraction. His hand drifted awkwardly to the nape of his neck as he chewed on his lip, struggling to put together the best answer he could.

"I'm… I'm really sorry, Marinette..."

He'd been asked out by various girls a handful of times, all of whom were strangers. In each case, he tried to keep his inevitable rejection as simple, casual, and polite as he could. But Marinette was his friend. She deserved an explanation. "I kind of like somebody else…"

 _Crap, how do I tell her I'm not rejecting her because I don't like her?_ he thought. He couldn't allow this moment to ruin their barely budding friendship, it meant too much to him to throw it all away _now_. Maybe it was naïve, but he had to ask. "But…um…we can still be friends, right?"

There was a long pause.

Many of the girls who'd asked him out in the past burst into tears upon his rejection, regardless of how gentle he was about it. But he'd never known those girls personally. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to handle seeing Marinette in tears.

To his immense relief, her lips turned up into a cheerful smile, and her voice was clear as a bell. "Of course!"

* * *

As the lunch period drew to a close, Alya raced to the school. Still bummed she couldn't be there at her best friend's side, she was naturally eager to hear how the conversation went and, with any luck, where they'd be going on their first date. Her sharp eyes spotted Marinette leaning against one of the pillars by the building's main entrance, and with a wide grin she hollered "Marinette!" and dashed up the stairs. It didn't occur to her that Marinette wasn't running to meet her halfway.

"Sorry I wasn't there," she panted as she got to the top. "Little sisters caught a sudden cold. So how did it—" She trailed off as she took in the sight of her friend up close. "—go…?"

Alya took in the slumped shoulders, the withdrawn stance, the way her dark bangs fell forward and concealed her eyes. An awful sinking feeling gripped her gut. _No. He didn't. He wouldn't dare…_ "Marinette?" she prompted, sending up a last-ditch hope that maybe she was only messing with her.

Slowly, the girl looked up. Twin tears streamed down her cheeks, framing a quivering smile as she tried to assure her in a bittersweet voice, "I didn't cry."

 _Oh… Oh, no…_

Alya didn't think, only reacted. Lunging forward, she threw her arms around the girl and pulled her in, letting her face nestle in the crook of her neck. The dam broke, and hot tears ran onto her collarbone as Marinette shook with muffled sobs.

"Oh baby..." Alya murmured.

A quote from that old American author crept into her aching mind. " _Love is never lost. If not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purify the heart."_

* * *

The heavens felt their superheroine's heartache that evening as black clouds gathered to block the sky and unleash their torrential rains throughout Paris.

Somewhere in the heart of a city, in the attic of an apartment above a quiet little bakery, the superheroine herself lay, clad in comforting pajamas, flat on her bed with her face smushed into a tear-soaked pillow. Other than the occasional sniffle she was quiet, finally worn out from hours of heavy sobbing. Meanwhile, her thoughts had spent that time spiraling in a cruel cycle of sorrow at the rejection, self-loathing over how blind she'd been, and frustrated attempts to quash her shattered feelings for him. Now, she just felt numb.

And a little afraid. "Tikki?" she ventured, her voice just above a croak.

Perched on the edge of the mattress, the kwami hopped up at her beckoning and floated silently up to sit on the damp pillow by her face.

"Will—will I turn into an akuma?"

Tikki reached out and stroked a lock of hair near her ear. "Are you mad at Adrien for turning you down?"

"No..." Marinette propped herself up on one elbow, not quite meeting Tikki's eyes. "If anything, I'm just mad at myself. I'm so stupid! I bet he wanted to make that brooch so he could give it to the girl _he_ likes." She sighed in resignation. "Whoever it is...she's really lucky."

At that last part, Tikki's drooping antennae perked back up, and she smiled warmly. "As long as you're not hateful, Marinette, that's what matters. He only comes when you want revenge."

"Mm." _That makes sense,_ she thought. _Every victim Hawkmoth akumatized has always targeted someone in their hate. Like how the Bubbler wanted to punish all adults, or how Copycat went after Chat Noir, or how Mr. Pigeon captured all the police officers._ But even now, she didn't blame Adrien or the girl he liked for what happened today. No, the only person she had to blame—the only person she could feel any ounce of hatred for—was herself. "What kind of dumb girl plans her future around a boy who doesn't even like her back?" she muttered.

"You're still young, Marinette," Tikki reminded her, hovering up to her eye level. "It's normal to have dreams. Your dedication to others is a gift, never lose sight of that. It's one of the many reasons I knew you'd make a wonderful Ladybug."

Marinette squeezed her eyes shut and reopened them. The kwami had a point, always did. Still… "I don't feel like such a great Ladybug right now," she said under her breath.

Tikki chuckled and lovingly pressed a tiny paw to the girl's freckled cheek. "Then you'll just have to take my word for it! Don't worry, you'll find love again. And this time, he'll love you back, because that's what you deserve." She leaned in and delicately pressed a kiss on the spot just below her eye.

Marinette didn't quite smile, but she knew Tikki knew she was grateful for the kind words and gesture. "Thanks," she said, letting her eyes droop closed again. "Thanks for everything, Tikki."

"I'll always be here for you."

* * *

It was still downpouring the next morning.

At school, Adrien stood at his locker and held up the brooch, his fingers fiddling with the smooth metal. _Ladybug wasn't out last night,_ he mused, his memories of making the jewelry soured by the events of yesterday. _I want to give this to her...but...now it feels wrong…_

"Hey, dude."

It was Nino. Adrien tucked the brooch in his backpack and shut his locker door. "Hey," he said back, turning to face him. "What's up?"

Nino didn't answer right away, though. Or rather, he started to say something, stopped, and seemed to reconsider. After doing this three times, Adrien was about to ask him to spit it out when he finally blurted, "You know, I always had a feeling you liked someone."

Adrien tensed. _Uh-oh._

"Sometimes you daydream in class and it shows so clear on your face." Then the playful light left his eyes and he frowned. "It's too bad about Marinette, though."

 _Wait, how did he know about that? Does anyone else know?_ A movement caught his wary eye as someone hurried past, but it was only Sabrina. "You—you heard about that?"

Nino shrugged and held up his phone. "Alya."

"Oh." _Duh. Of course she'd tell her best friend, who would of course tell her boyfriend._ Adrien rubbed his neck and looked away. "I mean, it's not like it's the first time a girl's asked me out," he explained awkwardly. "It's just...it was the first time it was one of my _friends_. I felt really bad telling her no. I didn't think I was leading her on with that—er, when I asked her to help me."

"It's not your fault, man," Nino countered, folding his arms. "Marinette's been crushing on you since day one. She would've been led on no matter what you did or didn't do with her." He pressed his lips together for a moment. "I mean, it's probably better it happened this way. The blow will be less crushing now than later on."

He had a point. "Yeah, you're right," he agreed. "She seemed to take it really well, too."

But the look on Nino's face seemed to suggest otherwise. "Um...you sure?" he cringed.

"Yeah, she didn't look upset at all," he said, puzzled. For a moment he considered asking Nino if something was up, but he was certain he'd read Marinette's face right the previous day.

And anyhow, Nino seemed to want to change the subject. "So who _is_ the girl you like?" he asked, waggling his eyebrows.

Adrien chuckled and turned away, hoisting his backpack strap higher on his shoulder. "If I told you, I'd have to kill you."

Nino snorted and bumped a brofist on the hand clutching his strap. "You're a dork. Can't you give your best friend any hints?"

"That still counts as making me kill you."

"Nah dude! See, because..." And on went the playful argument over what exactly constituted telling enough of a secret to murder its recipient as they walked up the stairs to their first period class and took their seats. Wrapped up in making sure his best friend didn't end up wheedling out any information indicating his crush on Ladybug, Adrien almost didn't notice the two girls come in through the classroom door.

Instantly he forgot about Nino as he sized them up. Marinette still didn't look particularly upset, and Alya had her arms folded in what looked like annoyance, but Alya tended to be annoyed at anything that didn't make her fangirl. As they passed by, Adrien did a slight wave at the former. "Er...good morning, Marinette," he made himself say.

She smiled back at him, looking like her normal chipper self. "Good morning!"

Adrien was just about to relax when—

 _Bam!_

A hand slammed on his desk, hard, and Adrien jerked back in shock.

" _GOOD MORNING._ "

Alya grinned at him maniacally, surrounded by flames with lasers boring out of her eyes straight through him. If looks could kill, this one would've flattened the Notre Dame cathedral into _crêpes suzette_. Adrien felt himself shrinking back, curling up into himself like a tiny kitten.

 _I'm guessing that can't be good…_

* * *

 _Rrriiiinnnggg!_

"You sure you're okay?" Alya asked with concern, just before they parted ways outside the school. "There's still a chance you could become an akuma, you know."

"I know," Marinette reminded her with a crooked smile. "I'm fine, really. Go take care of your sisters."

Alya still looked uneasy. "Okay...but I'm still going to call you over and over and _over_ to make sure you're okay."

Marinette shrugged, feigning indifference. "Sure."

In truth, she was grateful to have a best friend who would go out of her way to look after her. As they waved goodbye, Marinette felt the emotional onslaught pressing at the edges of her mind, and it took all her willpower to keep it at bay. She didn't want to cry, not again. Though the sun was out, the air still felt damp and heavy from the recent storm as she huffed and marched herself towards home, avoiding puddles blotting out the sidewalk here and there.

"Well, well, well. Look who's the loser now."

Marinette froze.

"Turned down flat after asking Adrien out. I can't _imagine_ the embarrassment you must feel."

 _No, Chloé, I'm sure you can't,_ she thought snarkily, glancing over her shoulder at the honey-blonde brat's smug sneer. "Give it a rest, Chloé," she said flatly, wishing Alya were still here. "He likes someone else. We both lose."

But of course Chloé wasn't done. "Hah! That's what you think," she scoffed. "Just who do you think that girl he likes is?"

 _Oh no._

Marinette closed her eyes and tried to block out the words she knew were coming.

Sure enough, Chloé was quick to triumphantly showcase her evidence. "You know," she began, laying a manicured hand on her tailored chest pointedly, "I've known Adrien _much_ longer than you. We're true childhood sweethearts. In fact, before he started going to this school, he _confessed his love for me._ "

An all-too-vivid image of Adrien down on one knee, striking a model pose as he all but thrusted an artful bouquet of scarlet roses peppered with baby's breath into the waiting arms of Chloé, glued itself on Marinette's eyelids. Her eyes shot open and she gasped.

"So, no. I don't lose."

 _It's not true it's not true it's not true it's not—_

"Only YOU lose."

Suddenly she lunged forward, the anger in her grotesque features blocking out all else until it was all Marinette could see. "And how you thought you could ever win against me is the lamest thing ever," the blonde hissed, eyes narrowed. "It's utterly pathetic. You may have everyone convinced you're all innocent and nice, but you'll never be as pretty or as rich as _I_ am. And that's all people really care about." Their noses were nearly touching by now. "You're never going to win against me. _Never_. In fact, you should just give up while you're _down!_ "

As if cued by Chloé's last word, Marinette lost her balance and stumbled backward, her foot slipping on the curb.

 _Splash!_

"Agh!" she cried, landing bottom-first in a giant puddle on the hard pavement of the side of the road, instantly soaked in dirty street water. Chloé was cackling at her fortunate turn of events, of course, but Sabrina, standing a little further back, looked aghast.

Naturally Chloé didn't care. "Oh, this is too good!" she gleefully chortled, whipping out her iPhone to snap a photo. "I'm going to send this to everybody! Except Adrien, of course. He shouldn't look at you more than he has to."

As mortifying as it was, a tiny part of her felt relieved he wouldn't see her like this.

"Now go turn into an akuma," Chloé said dismissively as she flounced off. "I can't wait to see what kind of ugly monster you become. Have fun getting defeated by Ladybug!"

Sabrina started to trot after her, then stopped and cast a forlorn glance back at Marinette. Mouthing the words "I'm sorry!" she scurried away.

Drained and emotionally numb, Marinette watched them go. _So Sabrina somehow found out about yesterday and told Chloé,_ she slowly pieced together, eyes stinging but too cried out to dredge up any more tears. _If only her life didn't revolve around pleasing that brat, maybe this wouldn't have happened._

A trickle of muddy water ran down her chin, and she looked down mutely at her ruined clothes and hair.

Adrien didn't like her back, her social tormentor got to run off with the guy, and she was now officially the laughingstock of the school.

 _How_ _could_ _this have happened?_

* * *

Tikki was just hanging the hip purse out to dry on the balcony when she heard someone enter the room below. Darting back inside through the window, she watched as Marinette paced around the room in her pajamas, still towel-drying her wet hair. With a pang, she pictured the girl's parents downstairs, sitting on the couch together as they worried over their daughter, with no idea she was recovering from what was shaping up to be a brutal rejection. Marinette hadn't said much over the past couple days, and Tikki wished she could do something to let know what had happened instead of leaving them in the dark, but of course that was impossible.

And anyhow, her more immediate concern was for the holder herself. Those awful comments must have smarted, and the puddle incident didn't help. They weren't quite out of danger from an akuma yet. "Marinette, are you mad at Chloé?" she asked, hovering closer.

"No," Marinette mumbled, turning around but not quite meeting Tikki's eyes. "I mean, she's right, isn't she? She'll always be better than me where it counts."

"That's not true!" Tikki insisted, hoping her holder didn't actually believe that. "That's not at all what counts. As long as you're kind and people love you for who you are, that's what really matters!"

"Not Adrien, though."

"Not..." She faltered, watching as Marinette's gaze lingered on the magazine cutouts taped to the bedroom wall. There was nothing she could say to make that better.

The girl stood there for awhile with the towel around her neck, dry-eyed, not saying anything, not appearing to feel anything, either. Then she went over to her desk and sat down, staring at the pile of homework waiting for her. Abruptly shaking her head, she stood up and paced a bit more. Finally she spoke. "I'd like to get some air."

Tikki nodded, glad her Ladybug was putting her own well-being first. "Okay. I think that will be good for you."

* * *

A few minutes later, Ladybug swung herself up to her favorite rooftop haunt, the one overlooking the Eiffel tower. For a moment she stood there motionless, her gaze fixed on the architectural beauty before her.

But the moment didn't last.

"Ladybug!" Completely oblivious to His Lady's less-than-inviting mood, Chat Noir hopped onto the rooftop behind her. "Hey, hi!" _Her hair is down,_ he noticed. _Wow! She should wear it like that more often, it's gorgeous!_ "Hello!" he called again, in case she hadn't heard.

"...Hi."

"I wasn't sure you'd be out today," he charged on, the eagerness in his voice completely indiscrete as he once again completely missed the monotone to her voice. "Since you weren't out yesterday, I mean."

She still kept her back to him. "Sorry."

"Nonono, it's okay!" he assured her quickly, stepping closer. "After all, there've been no akuma attacks all week. It's been a nice break, eh?"

"Sure..."

 _Okay, enough with the small talk,_ Chat told himself, taking a deep breath. _Time to do what you came here to do._ He reached a hand into his left pocket, claws closing around the brooch he'd tucked in there earlier. "Um...L-Ladybug, can I...can I ask you some—"

"I'm not really in the mood to do a patrol today. Sorry."

Before he knew it, she was swinging away on her yo-yo. "Ah, wait!" Chat called after her, just a second too late.

She was gone.

The hand he'd reached out for her faltered, dropped back to his side. Something was wrong, and she didn't want to talk about it with him. Feline felt ears drooping, Chat Noir brought the other hand out of his pocket and bit his lip as he looked at the brooch.

 _All this brooch has brought so far is unhappiness. Maybe I never should've had it made in the first place…_

* * *

The next day, Adrien was still sulking as he left the school building to meet Nathalie and the Gorilla.

 _What could've happened to her?_ he thought for the two-dozenth time that day. _Ladybug seemed really upset last night...but she was so happy the week before… Did I miss my chance to give it to her?_

 _Or was I right about it feeling wrong to give this to her at all?_

Any more ruminations were cut off, however, when a yellow-and-white blur darted over out of nowhere and tackled him nearly to the ground. "ADRIKINS!"

Chloé?

But already she'd hopped off him and was blowing kisses as she turned to leave. "Sorry we can't do anything together right now," she purred, her voice like rich honey with clumps of added brown sugar and vanilla extract—that is, unnecessarily sweet. "I'd stick around, but I have to get out of here before that little pest finds me."

Adrien blinked. _Pest?_ "What—?"

"Bye-bye, see you later, sweetie!" And just as quickly as she had come, Chloé was gone.

 _She's being more clingy than usual,_ Adrien noted, reaching up to rub his neck out of habit. _At least someone around here is happy—_

"THAT _WITCH!_ "

Suddenly it was Alya rushing in, and she looked _hella_ angry. "Where did she go?!" she demanded to no one in particular.

Then she whirled on him.

Adrien gulped, instantly wishing he had a last will and testament to leave behind in this world. _Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit..._

"This is all _your_ fault!" Alya screamed, jabbing a finger squarely in the center of his chest.

His fault? Huh? Things were happening too fast. "Wh-what—?"

"All Marinette ever wanted was for you to _notice her!_ She's done so much—SO MUCH—for you, and _this_ is how you repay her?!"

"Alya!" From somewhere behind Adrien came Nino, gently taking her shoulders, face full of pity. "Alya, please calm down."

To her credit, Alya did lower her voice, but it only made her even more terrifying. "Do you," she growled, her clenched fists trembling, "have _any_ idea, how much she CRIED over you?"

Wait, _what?_ "She...she wasn't crying..." Adrien began, feeling stupider the more he tried to convince himself that was true.

"Of _course_ she wasn't crying in front of you!" Alya cut him off, her voice rising again. "She didn't want _you_ to be upset! She's always putting your feelings over her own!" There was a pause, as if undecided about whether to continue, then the moment passed and she charged forward even louder. "You know that scarf? The stupid blue scarf you love so much? The one you _think_ your dad gave you? Well, he _didn't_ —Marinette just let you believe that because it made you happy. Just _look_ at it! I'm sure her name is on there somewhere!"

Alya squeezed her eyes shut, her whole body trembling now, and the lenses on her glasses looked misty. "Marinette does so much for everyone," she choked out, her voice barely above a broken whisper. "She deserves so much more than the crap people put her through...so much more...so much..."

Seeing her break down crying, Nino put his arm around her and began leading her away. "Come on," he said softly, glancing sadly back at Adrien. "See you tomorrow..."

Adrien was stunned. Utterly stunned.

 _Crying...me...the scarf...Marinette?_

He stood there for a long time.

* * *

Evening fell, and Adrien was _still_ sulking.

Plagg, going to town on a hunk of Camembert while his holder was flopped on the bed in classic Disney Princess form, had no trouble noticing. Upon arriving home earlier, the first thing the boy did was march straight up to his bedroom and make a beeline for his closet, where he'd pulled out his scarf rack and silently fingered the tiny stitching on the hem of the blue scarf which, sure enough, spelled out Marinette's name. Then of course he'd tossed it aside and flopped on the bed, and hadn't made a peep since. Classic, overly dramatic model Adrien Agreste. "Gonna assume you're too busy feeling sorry for yourself to go out tonight," he smirked between munches, pointedly eyeing the blue scarf crumpled on the floor in a carelessly discarded heap.

Just like that, Adrien launched himself up into a sitting position. "That's what you think," he retorted, hiding a grimace as he checked the time on his phone. "I still have to give Ladybug her gift."

Plagg swallowed and raised an eyebrow—or rather, did whatever the kwami equivalent of raising an eyebrow was—at him. "You really still gonna give that thing to her after all that drama?"

"Of course I am!" _He knows me well, though_ , Adrien had to admit, a little unnervingly. _I guess part of it will still feel wrong no matter what I tell myself. Still, my mind is made up._ "I know how difficult it is to muster up the courage to confess your feelings to someone," he said aloud, justifying his reasoning. "The least I can do is be as brave as Marinette was."

"Yeah, and then get your heart broken just like you broke that girl's heart!" Plagg snickered.

A chill of apprehension ran down his spine, but trying to hide it, Adrien rolled his eyes and stuck his right fist out. "Claws out, Plagg."

" _Eeep!_ "

The hunk of Camembert lay cast aside on the side table as Adrien, now Chat Noir, keyed open the usual windowpane and leapt out into the Parisian dusk. He started off in the direction of the nearby Eiffel Tower, then skidded to a halt as it occurred to him that Ladybug might not have wanted to go back there after he interrupted her alone time last night. Quickly he ran through the mental list of his partner's favorite rooftop haunts, decided to try the Musée Picasso on gut instinct, and took off in the opposite direction.

His gut was right. Pole-vaulting up onto the museum roof, Chat spied her perched on the far end of the building. _There she is,_ he thought, pointing out the obvious to himself in his nervousness. Quietly, but not so quietly that she wouldn't sense his approach at all, the superhero leapt to a spot behind her. "Er, good evening, My Lady!" he coughed. "Sorry I'm a bit late."

She didn't say anything for awhile. Then she made an irritated noise and started to stand up. "I'm still not up to do a patrol right now—"

"Wait! Please tell me what's bothering you?"

The words ripped their way out of him like a dull but desperate knife through a particularly durable shower curtain. But it was enough to halt Ladybug from taking her leave on him. "Nothing is bothering me," she answered tonelessly.

Beyond relieved she was still here, Chat felt some of his old flirtatious self resurfacing. "My sixth sense says otherwise," he countered, his own tone coy.

She shot him a look over her shoulder. "...You don't have a sixth sense."

"I don't need one to see you've been rather down since yesterday."

"I don't want to talk about it."

Chat's smile faded. _So there_ _is_ _something wrong,_ he thought, _and she refuses to tell me what…_ "Thennn...we don't have to talk about it!" he decided, spreading out his palms innocently. "In fact, we don't have to talk at all! Let's play a game instead!"

At last she turned to face him, bemused. "...What."

"I know just the game!" he went on with a snap of his fingers. "It's called 'Cat and Mouse'. Whoever's the cat has to catch the mouse! I'll start, of course, since I am in all actuality a cat—"

"That game already exists," she said dryly. "It's called 'Tag'."

 _Keep the act up, Chat, keep it up._ "What!" he exclaimed in mock outrage, putting his hands to his hips. "Why, that's plagiarism of the first degree! I need to call my lawyer about this!"

Ladybug wasn't amused. "This is dumb. I'm not in the mood for this."

 _Uh-oh, red alert, I'm losing her!_ "Aah—alright, alright, fine!" Folding his arms and assuming an air of placation, he tried a different tactic. "If you're really afraid to lose to me, you're welcome to forfeit."

That was all the bait he needed to hook her. "I'm not afraid to lose..."

"No no, it's okay, I totally understand," he continued, holding up his hands in a _stop_ gesture. "I make an impeccable cat, clearly. It's completely normal to be intimidated by my amazing sk—"

 _Fwoom!_

Caught off guard, Chat barely caught his balance as a red blur streaked past him, and he swiveled around to find Ladybug skipping behind him.

"I'll play your stupid game," she called, finally cracking a grin, "but _only_ to wipe that smug look off your face!"

Chat grinned back. "Deal!" And lunged toward her.

Over the rooftops they flew, the full moon shining down to light their way as the nimble mouse kept herself one step ahead of the mischievous cat. At one point as she ran along one of the flatter roofs, Chat made a wild leap toward her and stretched out his claws, only to land hard on his stomach and get the wind knocked out of him—"Oomph!"—as Ladybug hopped out of the way like a fencer hops over a sword aimed at his legs. But soon enough he was up and at 'em again, determined to keep His Lady in his sights. It wasn't long before she was laughing with exhilaration, and Chat knew he'd succeeded in cheering her up.

 _Now it's time to end the game._

Chat bided his time until they landed on a building with a chimney at the other end, then he made his move. While Ladybug charged forward he slipped down one side, then doubled around and stealthily climbed up the other side of the chimney. His gamble working, Ladybug came to a rest as she perched atop the chimney, panting and scanning the horizon for her partner.

Who crept up behind her and…

"Gotcha!"

"Aaagh!" Knocked off the chimney, Ladybug and Chat Noir tumbled to the roof below, barrel-rolling down the side and across the tops of the tightly-packed buildings until the latter could pin the former below him. "Say it," he meowed.

Ladybug was still laughing. "Say what?" she managed.

" _What?!_ " he cried mock-indignantly, claws aggressively tickling her midriff. "I swear I'll torture it out of you!"

That got her. "Aah! Okay, okay!" With one last hiccup of laughter, she beamed at him. "You win."

Her bluebell eyes were twinkling.

Suddenly very aware of how close they were, Chat felt his cheeks turn pink and he scooted off of her self-consciously. "Ah...um...Ladybug..." he stammered, scratching the back of his neck with one hand and slipping the other into his pocket. "There's...ah...something I...er...want to give you… That is, um..."

Ladybug was watching him with mild interest. Then with a start, her face unexpectedly changed to a look of alarm. "Wha—?"

 _Boooom…!_

The explosion was distant, but there. A sickening feeling in his stomach, Chat whirled around to watch the cloud of smoke and debris billow up into the night sky. Behind him, Ladybug was already up on her feet, and when next he looked back to her, she was swinging away.

Chat hesitated only long enough to bite his lip dejectedly before following her. _Of course. I try to confess, and an akuma attacks. Right damn on time._

Something told him His Lady was never gonna wear that brooch.

 **A/N At 19 followers, this narrative adaptation of SleepySundae's comic has officially become my most followed fanfic _ever_ on this website! Thanks for all the support, guys! (And of course, a big thank-you to SS herself for the recent shoutout on her deviantArt ^.^)**


	5. Chapter 3b

Chapter 3b

 _The explosion looked like it came from somewhere near the Notre Dame,_ Ladybug calculated as she swung toward the scene. Her chase with Chat Noir had carried them pretty far north of the Seine River and landed them somewhere in the _dix-huitième arrondissement_ , and she knew they'd have to hurry if they were gonna make it back there before the akuma destroyed anything major.

Sure enough, the two superheroes arrived at the source of the smoke cloud (thankfully several blocks northeast of the famed cathedral) to find a giant hulk of a—well, _giant_ —shaped vaguely like a bulldozer scoop and clad in an orange construction vest and utility belt, towering over a small crowd of onlookers on the Pont Louis-Philippe overlooking the river. A toppled crane and pile of dismantled scaffolding by the ruins of a building on the _île_ behind him told the story of what the akuma victim's destructive motives were.

The rest he was all too willing to fill in himself. "I AM MANDOZER!" the giant roared. Reaching for a colossal hammer strapped to his belt, he swung it with one arm at the pavement on the bridge with as much force as sixty jackhammers. "Think I'm not a HARD WORKER, do you?!" As the hammer left in its wake a crater on the street, he fired a wrecking ball from his other arm menacingly. "I'll show YOU shoddy construction!"

"Hey! I thought construction workers were supposed to _make_ things!" Chat hollered.

Mandozer's bridge-destroying ground to a halt, and he raised his head to suspiciously regard the two rooftop-perching superheroes. Wordlessly he rolled forward on his treads until he had crossed the bridge to meet them, then stuck out his wrecking ball arm and fired.

Ladybug and Chat Noir hopped nimbly aside as the metal ball crunched into the section of roof between them. As if he could care less about their narrow miss, Mandozer swung his arm backward, and the ball fell to the bridge in another crater-forming shower of concrete chunks. Slowly the chain slid back into his arm, taking the ball with it.

"We should take care of this guy quickly, he's causing way too much damage," Ladybug observed, narrowing her eyes in concern. "It looks like it takes a while for him to retract that wrecking ball. If we can find out where the akuma is, I can grab it during that window of time."

With his usual cockish grin, Chat sent a mock salute her way. "You got it, Chief. Detective Distraction is on the case!" And off he went.

Meanwhile, Ladybug doubled back around behind the akuma victim until she was halfway across the bridge and scanned his body for a likely hiding place, spotting Nadja Chamack's van and Alya's bicycle roll up to join the crowd nearby. _Great_ , she inwardly groaned. _As much as I love Alya and Mrs. Chamack, they better not start cheering or something to distract us._

"Hey, Bulldozer!" Chat was taunting from atop a lamppost. "Think you can hit meeeeee?"

Out launched the wrecking ball. " _Yeow!_ " the superhero yelped.

Ladybug watched the proceedings with a careful eye. _It's difficult to tell where the akuma is when I don't know the victim,_ she mused. _The item doesn't usually change with the rest of the transformation, so it can't be the hammer… That small ruler tucked in his belt might be it, but I'll have to get very close to reach it… Well, here goes nothing._

"Lucky charm!" she commanded, tossing her yo-yo up in the air. When it came back down again, a large oblong red and black-spotted item fell into her arms with it.

 _A giant...screwdriver…_

Squinting at the akuma victim, her eyes fell on the giant screw hinging the elbow on Mandozer's grasping arm...

...right at the exact moment he turned around and spotted her with the lifesize tool. "You think you're a better construction worker than me, huh?!" he snarled, pointing at her. "I'll show you!"

Ladybug stood her ground as he charged, hoping for a shot at his elbow, not knowing whether she could jump out of the way if not—

—" _RRRAAAAAAUUUHHH!_ "—

But her partner had other ideas. While the akuma victim's back was turned on him, Chat Noir launched himself at the giant's hard hat and swung his staff with all his might.

 _Thonkkk!_

Knocked senseless, Mandozer tumbled over, the momentum flinging Chat forward as if off a trapeze. Ladybug leapt to one side as the giant smashed into the side of the Pont Louis-Philippe, sending crumbled chunks of pavement and railing into the river waters below. She felt the entire bridge wobble, but with the support columns below still relatively undamaged, it held.

Her earrings beeped a three-minute warning.

"Ladybug!"

 _Chat Noir!_ Scooting around the motionless giant, Ladybug found him clinging to the jagged edge of the smashed bridge side, his claws losing their grip and sliding down the concrete inch by inch. The lucky charm slipped from her grasp as she dove for his arms, and it too tumbled down into the Seine. But Ladybug thought only of her partner, now clinging onto her for dear life. "Are you okay?" she asked breathlessly, all too aware they were high enough that a fall into the river could be deadly.

"Of course!" he answered, somehow managing a wink despite the dire situation. "I love hanging out with you, My Lady."

Her earrings beeped a one-minute warning as she suppressed an eyeroll. "Is this really the time for jokes?"

"It's always a good time for—"

He trailed off, and his face grew grave. "Ladybug, let go."

She stared at him. "What? No! Are you crazy?"

The earrings were beeping insistently now.

" _Let go!_ "

A shadow fell over them, and Ladybug realized the akuma victim wasn't collapsed on her left anymore. Still rooted to the spot, she turned around to take in the sight of him looming over her.

" _LADYBUG!_ "

The beeping incessant, the final spot on her earrings began to flicker. _Five...four..._

The hammer swung high above his head.

 _No._ Ladybug squeezed her eyes shut. _No!_

 _...three...two..._

" _LET GO_ _NOW_ _!_ "

"No!"

 _...one._

* * *

In the split second that followed, several things happened in near slow motion.

For the onlookers, nothing particularly out of the ordinary was going on. Ladybug and Chat Noir were fighting an akuma, Ladybug was trying to save Chat's life while the akuma closed in, yet as dire as the situation looked, they had complete confidence in Paris's superheroines to save the day as usual. They had no idea the heroine's left eye didn't quite look as it should have.

For Chat Noir, he barely had time to wonder at the red glow bathing His Lady's face when he felt himself violently jerked upward and flung through the air and— " _...uuuuuuwwwAAAAAAAAAaaahhh...!_ " _Fump-SMASH!_ —landed flat on his face, safely back on the bridge.

For Mandozer, it was the exact same moment he brought down his hammer squarely on the spot where Ladybug lay. Yet when he hefted it back up again, she wasn't there. It wasn't until a small red hair ribbon floated past him that he whirled around on his treads. And his metal jaw went so slack it nearly fell off its hinges.

For Hawkmoth, watching events play out through the purple butterfly outline around his akuma victim's eyes, it was the first time in his entire supervillain career that he was struck speechless. Not even Paris's Most Wanted could put words to his pure shock.

As for Ladybug, she was aware of none of this. The superheroine had blacked out the moment her earrings lost their last spot.

And her left eye, the very eye Wayzz's magic had hit, took on the exact appearance of the Miraculous Stone of the Ladybug. In place of the bluebell iris was a red orb with five spots. Like a regeneration in a video game.

A regeneration that should not have been possible.

There she stood, dramatically framed in the moonlight as a godlike sentinel, the hair from her freed pigtail blowing in the breeze and obscuring half her face. The other half displayed her new Miraculous-Eye.

Chat Noir saw it. Hawkmoth saw it. The onlookers were too far away to see it. Mandozer wouldn't remember it. Ladybug had no idea it was there.

But no one noticed two tiny earrings clatter to the ground and roll out of sight.

* * *

After that, time sped back up and everything happened too fast.

Moaning in agony, Chat Noir raised his head just in time to watch Ladybug, stoic, silent, toss her yo-yo up in the air a second time. But instead of a screwdriver, it was a hammer ( _A hammer? Since when were lucky charms violent?_ ) that fell into her waiting arms, its black spots eerily warped. Before Mandozer knew what was happening, she swung the hammer at him like a 9-iron at a golf ball, and he went flying. As he crashed to the other side of the bridge, she strode towards him and grabbed the ruler from his tool belt without hesitation, the giant too shocked to stop her.

Her left eye blinked. The five spots had dwindled down to three, and now that third one was flickering.

Break. Swing. Catch. Release. Toss.

The magic swept through and repaired the crumbling bridge, leaving a bewildered construction worker in its wake. "Huh? Ooouuuggghhh..." he winced, rubbing his head.

Were akuma victims normally still hurt after detransforming?

Ladybug towered unmoving over him, the single spot left resembling a pupil in the fathomless unnatural red of her eye.

Behind her, the crowd began to approach. At the forefront were Nadja Chamack with her camera-wielding assistant and Alya clutching her iPhone in excitement.

Chat, meanwhile, had recovered sufficiently from his injuries to jump to his feet. "Ladybug! That was _amazing!_ " he practically squealed. "How were you able to do _two_ lucky charms? And how were you able to not detransform? And—"

The last spot flickered out.

A ripple passed through her body as all the strength she'd found evaporated, and Ladybug crumpled.

"Ah—!" Taken by surprise, Chat found himself catching her as she collapsed into his arms. Her face was deathly white and streaked with sweat, her eyes had fallen shut, and he realized she was unconscious.

 _My Lady…?_

Wait. Where were her earrings?

Suddenly there was an all-too-familiar sort of fizzing sound, and Chat saw with alarm that she was finally beginning to detransform. He watched as the magic faded to reveal pink ballet flats, an ankle, the hem of matching pink capris—

Mrs. Chamack's voice cut through his stupor. "Ladybug! Chat Noir! Could we ask you a few questions?"

 _Reporters. Cameras. Her identity!_ Blessed with a sudden burst of clarity and adrenaline, Chat leapt as high as he could up to the nearest lamppost, then bounded off the bridge, onto the nearest rooftops, and out of sight.

* * *

Somewhere in a quiet part of the city, Félix padded silently down the cobblestones of a forgotten side street, subconsciously following his nose as his mind raced.

He approached a corner and peered around the building to see Chat Noir standing in the alley, green feline eyes narrowed to thunderstruck slits, as he cradled the limp form of Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

* * *

 _Even after so many centuries,_ _there are still mysteries about the Miraculous that have yet to be uncovered._

In his darkened lair, Hawkmoth gazed motionlessly out the picture window at the moonlit Paris skyline. Too stunned by the events of the night to rant about his defeat, he stood there and pondered.

 _Even now, new powers are coming to light._

The impossible regeneration. The second lucky charm. Its warped spots.

 _The question is, what triggered them?_

The unfeeling grimness in her set jaw. The dead silence. Her collapse at the end.

 _Was it all in the stone?_

The red eye with five spots.

 _Or…_

 _Was it the girl?_

…

Hawkmoth remained motionless as the window covering spiraled shut, plunging his lair into darkness. Whatever the cause of this new development, maybe, just maybe, he could use it to his advantage.


	6. BRIEF STATUS UPDATE (not a new chapter)

**A/N Hey, guys.**

 **No, this fic is not dead. At least not on my end.**

 **As for the comic, I'm sure many of you are aware of what happened with SleepySundae. For those of you who aren't, I'll fill you in.**

 **Basically, someone reposted her entire comic in a monetized YouTube video, and would not take it down after SS asked. This is not the first time this happened, unfortunately, but it was the last one SS was willing to deal with. So, she decided to delete and discontinue the entire comic. You can still find the whole thing up until partway through Chapter 8 in its PDF form by going to her gallery on deviantArt, but she will no longer be making any new pages for the comic.**

 **So far, what this has meant for me is that the three chapters I had written up until that point (4a, 4b, and 5a) still haven't been approved by her, since she needs a well-deserved break from thinking about the comic. This is why I haven't posted any updates even though they're technically ready to go. Currently, the plan is to continue writing up everything she's published thus far, and unless she tells me differently, SS _*might*_ be willing to let me take over the remaining chapters she hadn't drawn up yet - i.e., I'd finish the story on here, with her permission. But until further notice, I won't be publishing anything I've written without her consent, so I've been taking the time to work on some personal projects instead.**

 **Like I said, this fic is not dead yet, merely on hiatus. Thank you all who favorited and followed this fic for hanging in there. Also, I recently got an account on AO3, would any of you guys prefer it if I moved the fic over there? I'd have to talk to SS of course, just in case, but do let me know in the review.**

 **Thanks Miraculers, for staying awesome!**


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